about: historical development

From Committee to Corporation (1971-1973)

In response to a growing community awareness of the gaps in children's mental health services, experienced by both professionals and concerned citizens of the community, an "Inter-Board Meeting on Regional Facilities for Children" was convened at the Royal Ottawa Hospital by Dr. C.A. Roberts on November 19, 1970. Representatives from a broad spectrum of community agencies determined at that meeting to set out a course that led to the opening of the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Residential Treatment Centre.

A review of the facilities for children at that meeting, focused on the almost total lack of long-term residential facilities in the region. This necessitated sending children, who required this type of service, to locations outside of their own community. In addition, it was clear that the Children's Mental Health Act would provide an appropriate structure for the support of a residential facility. A committee was formed which expanded the breadth of the community’s participation, and at its first meeting on January 19, 1971, Mr. R.S. Smart was elected as Chairman. With the support of the Ministry of Health, the momentum provided by community concern and the expertise and leadership of Dr. Roberts and Mr. Smart, proposals were prepared. By July of 1971, a formal request for the detailed planning of a "Children's Residential Treatment Centre for the Ottawa Health Region" had been submitted to the Ministry of Health.

The next two years was marked by revisions to the proposal, by further consideration of site, number and types of residences, and by additional assessment of need and proposed numbers of children to be accommodated. By August of 1973, the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Residential Treatment Centre was incorporated, and a site selected for the construction of the buildings for the Centre. A building site on Carling Avenue was leased from the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and on September 20, 1973, an organizational meeting for the new Corporation was called and officers were elected and committees struck to carry out the work of the Corporation. Mr. R.S. Smart was elected Chairman of the Board and President of the Corporation; and Dr. C.A. Roberts was appointed Interim Executive Director.

With the decision on the Carling Avenue site made, the acquisition of decentralized residences in community settings was undertaken. By November 1973, three houses had been selected as facilities to complement the proposed services to be offered in the two residences under construction. These houses, located one in each of the western, central and eastern sections of the metropolitan area reflected the Centre's commitment to within-community, non-institutional residential services.

Children's Mental Health Centre Development (1974 -1982)

The period from March to October, 1974, saw the successive implementation of each of the five residences. With the appointment of the Centre's first Executive Director, Mr. D.H. Richardson, in May 1974, began a 10-year development of services, initially in mental health and eventually to include specialized services for young offenders.

From 1974 until the fall of 1982, the Centre was comprised of the five residences. Accommodations for five youths in each of the three community homes, and eight in each of the two central units brought the Centre’s capacity to 31 full-time residential places. With one unit established as a Francophone home, the Centre was able, from its inception, to serve clients in both official languages.

Beginning in 1976, the Centre developed several special projects. First of all, in cooperation with the Carleton Board of Education, a special class (a section 16 classroom under the Education Act, 1983) was established at Sir Robert Borden High School. Through this program the Centre provided support for an educational program to facilitate the academic progress of eight clients from the Centre's residential units. Secondly, the Centre developed a relationship with the Project DARE, a wilderness program outside of South River, Ontario. Every summer the Centre sent each residence for a five-day wilderness experience. Also during 1976, additional camping trips were initiated, and each summer the residences took turns participating in a camping program run by the Centre.

Secure Treatment and Young Offender Services (1982-1986)

With the closure of the Champlain Training School in Alfred, Ontario, in June, 1981, the Ministry of Community and Social Services requested program proposals from community agencies for the following four new initiatives:

Along with a number of agencies, the Centre submitted proposals for all four programs. Over the spring and summer of 1983, the Ministry awarded three of the four programs to the Roberts/Smart Centre. The first increased the Centre's ability to serve the Francophone population with the establishment of an eight-bed community residence, which admitted its first client on December 13, 1982. The second resulted in a five bed community residence, which was established for the Crown Ward program, and the first client was admitted on March 8, 1983. Three additional beds were integrated into the Centre's residential units, and assigned according to the needs of individual clients and the particular program's ability to respond to those needs. For the selection of the Secure Treatment and Crisis Intervention program, the Ministry's Ottawa Area Office established a province-wide panel that reviewed the various submissions. On October 5, 1982, the Ministry again chose the Roberts/Smart Centre to implement this program. An extensive two-year period of concept development and renovation to one of the units at the Carling Avenue site ensued. With the appointment of the Centre's second Executive Director, Dr. F. Xavier Plaus, in January, 1985, the secure treatment program was finalized and implementation began during February, 1985, with the first client admitted on March 1, 1985. In cooperation with the Ottawa Board of Education, a special on-site classroom for the Secure Treatment program was established, to provide for the educational needs of adolescents in the unit. In the fall of 1985, the crisis intervention program commenced, with two residential beds allocated to support clients in crisis. In 1983, the Centre developed an innovative rural residential program in order to address the needs of youth who required time away from the challenges of an urban placement.

Expanding into Day Treatment (1986-1996)

The Centre's first Day Treatment program, a Section 16 class at Sir Robert Borden High School, operated from 1976 to 1994. This program provided educational support services for up to eight Anglophone clients from residential programs. This program was discontinued in 1994, because a strong academic high school was increasingly found to be an inappropriate placement for the Centre’s clients. Subsequently, however, a number of opportunities arose that facilitated the Centre's increased interest and need to move into day treatment.

In January 1990, a special class for Francophone students was established in Plantagenet High School. Eventually, this program was discontinued and a contract established with Le Conseil des écoles publiques d'Ottawa-Carleton, beginning in September 1991, to run three-day treatment classes for 24 students out of De La Salle High School. In September 1992, a third Francophone class was developed. This program was called ADAPT, and it was run out of the Centre’s Cobourg residence until June 2002, then for one year from École St. Rémi on Grenon St., before closing in June 2003.

L'Annexe began operation out of Plantagenet High School in September 1997, offering the Francophone community of Prescott-Russell a total of sixteen Day Treatment places. In addition, a “suspension class” was started in early 2007, to meet the needs of students suspended from regular school programs, with the goal of reintegration as soon as possible.

The Centre operates two Anglophone Day Treatment programs (Section 23 classes) in partnership with the M.F. McHugh Education Centre. One program provides support for up to sixteen 12-14 year old students (community clients) at Fisher Park Public School; and a classroom for up to 8 students operates on-site at our secure program.

As of the spring of 2007, the Centre runs four section 23 classrooms with a total of 48 places, 24 Anglophone and 24 Francophone.

Since October 1988, the Centre has offered an adolescent addictions program called Adolescent Substance Abuse Program (A.S.A.P). Recently restructured, A.S.A.P. offers assistance to substance-abusing youth and their families in accessing appropriate addictions services by increasing awareness and motivation and circumventing other barriers to treatment.
A clinician assesses clients who are identified as having substance abuse issues. A meeting takes place with the client and his/her family. At this point, a treatment plan is discussed which is concrete and time-limited. Possible directions for the treatment plan include: referral for First Contact or the DAWN program (provided by A.S.A.P.'s Coordinator), brief family counseling (by A.S.A.P's clinician), or a more immediate connection to the addictions services network. Program evaluation will remain an integral part of this program.

Further Developments (1986-1995)

In June of 1987 a therapeutic foster home program was initiated with the first transfer of an adolescent from a residential unit to a foster home in the community. The Centre allocated financial resources to support the care of three adolescents in residence with community families. This program subsequently discontinued as the Centre began to focus its residential resources more exclusively on those youth who are severely conduct-disordered.

In February 1988 a contract was established with the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa-Carleton to develop a long-term residence, dedicated to serving adolescents in their care requiring residential treatment. In February 1988, the Ministry of Community and Social Services requested submissions for an eight-bed Francophone residence to be located in a rural area. In April, the program was awarded to the Roberts/Smart Centre, and the Place jeûnet residence was opened in January 1989.

The Therapeutic Camping program has been a key feature of the summer program at the Centre over the course of its evolution. In previous years, provincial parks and the D.A.R.E. wilderness program were relied upon. Since 1993, the Centre has run camp programs exclusively at the Hurd's Lake and R.O.P.E. sites. The R.O.P.E. program site has been developed by Centre staff over the past several years, and has the potential for development into a "state-of-the-art" four-season outdoor recreational program, incorporating mountain bikes, cross-country ski trails and a low-initiative course.

In 1991, the Centre initiated an Independent Living Program, accommodating three older adolescent clients in three one-bedroom apartment units. These apartments were leased from a municipal non-profit housing corporation, and the program provided safe, secure accommodations and support in regard to life skills, income assistance applications, education and landlord/tenant issues. The program was targeted at transitional-age youth (16 to 18) who required support and assistance with the transition to independence upon leaving the Centre. Due to financial pressures, this program was discontinued.

To cope with the expanded services and programs, three temporary buildings were installed on the Carling Avenue site in the fall of 1988. By September 1991, the Centre had outgrown the original administrative accommodations at 1199 Carling Avenue, and central administration was moved to new offices, at 1335 Carling Avenue.

Becoming Entrepreneurial (1996-present)

Faced with a climate of financial restraint in government funding, in 1996 the Centre began to consider ways in which services could be provided on a purchase-of-service basis. Several residences were structurally modified to increase bed capacity. This initially resulted in five more beds. With a positive response from Children's Aid Societies across the province, the Putman residence was re-opened in the fall of 1996. In May 1997, the Centre opened its tenth residence, Aero, resulting in the Centre having a total residential capacity of 77.

Starting in the fall of 2000, a new daytime supervision and educational program, the Attendance Centre, was initiated, which in combination with foster home placements provides a less expensive alternative to residential treatment. It also makes available an educational option for some adolescents, who have been suspended or expelled from a regular school. In 2004, the Attendance Centre received accreditation from the Ministry of Education as a private school, the Roberts/Smart Learning Academy, giving students the opportunity to receive credit for their work towards high school graduation.

Adapting to the Times (2005-present)

With the support of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS), the Centre undertook a major restructuring exercise in the fall of 2005. Financial pressures forced a downsizing exercise that included the closure of residential services and the reduction of the full-time staffing complement by over fifty positions. The intent was to create a sustainable organization that can continue to meet the needs of youth with very serious behavior related to mental health concerns. In order to reduce costs, the administrative offices were moved from 1335 Carling Avenue to a newly-renovated space at the 1199 Carling Avenue site.

With a reconstituted Board of Directors and a commitment to revitalize the clinical program and the Centre’s place in the children’s services community, a leaner and more focused organization has emerged. The former crisis program has been transferred to the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa to support the region’s Integrated Crisis Response Program, where crisis services are shared across agencies to ensure timely and effective response to youth and families in the City of Ottawa and outlying communities.

The downsizing has left the Centre with a total of six residential programs, including eight secure treatment beds, eight youth justice beds, six community beds for child and family intervention (four English and two French) and an additional twenty-five beds are available on a purchase of service basis, normally to Children’s Aid Societies across the province.
The Centre had been accepting out-of-province referrals to support jurisdictions that are under resourced in the area of residential treatment; however the Board made the decision to suspend this practice in order to ensure that youth from Ontario receive full access to beds.

In September 2006, at the Centre’s 34th Annual General Meeting, the Attendance Centre program was renamed in honour of Debbie Campbell, a 25-year employee of the Centre and an integral part of the development of the Learning Academy program. Debbie passed away after a second battle with cancer in October 2006, but was proud to have been told that the Debbie Campbell Learning Academy would stand as her legacy, to continue her vision of a place where young people could receive a quality education, in spite of many challenges facing them.

In January 2007, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (Youth Justice Services) awarded a contract to the Centre to provide a French-language day treatment classroom in Prescott-Russell to meet the needs of students suspended from school programs, with a view to stabilizing their behavior and reintegrating them as soon as possible.