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Peel Children's Centre
FAQ:
Questions Parents and Caregivers Often Ask UsWhat is Peel Children's Centre?
Peel Children's Centre is an officially approved, or accredited, children’s mental health centre. We offer many different, excellent services for children, teenagers and their families who are coping with serious emotional difficulties.
Who uses our services?
Children and teenagers who have problems with relationships, feelings, or behaviour use our services. We also help their families.
What are our beliefs about caring for these children and their families?
These beliefs guide us when we care for children and their families.
- Parents, teachers, and others who care about children with mental health problems can make a difference in their lives.
- We must listen and pay attention to parents' concerns and wishes.
- We must also listen and pay attention to the concerns of these children and teenagers.
- Our staff give the best service when they work together with parents to help their children.
How much do our services cost?
All our services at Peel Children's Centre are free to the children, teenagers and families who use them.
What services do we offer?
We offer many different services, for example,
- help getting the services that you need, either from Peel Children's Centre or from other groups,
- help dealing with feelings about the mental health problem,
- counselling for individual children and teenagers, and their families,
- groups on topics such as dealing with divorce or separation, coping with challenging behaviour, and training in skills that help people deal with their daily lives,
- treatment offered during the day at schools in the Region of Peel (day treatment programs),
- consulting, or talking, with staff from other mental health care services about a child’s problems and treatment, and training for staff from these services,
- programs that offer treatment in a home with specially trained people (residential programs),
- care that gives parents a short break from looking after their child with a mental health problem (respite care), and
- tests to find out what the problem is (assessments).
How can you or your family get our services?
If you or your family live in the Region of Peel, you can call our Centralized Intake Services at 905-451-4655.
Our staff will tell you about our services. They will ask you about your child's needs and your concerns. Then they will tell you if Peel Children's Centre is the right service for you.
If we are not the best service to help you, our staff will tell you about other services that can.
What happens if you have to wait for our services?
If you have to wait for our services, our staff may suggest other services that you can call.
You can ask us about books, videos, and other things that we may have to help you. Our staff will be happy to tell you about them.
While you wait for our services, you may come to some of our groups. In these groups, you will meet others who have children with mental health problems. And you can get ideas about how to deal with your problems.
How do we help you?
Most of the time, one person on our staff will be chosen to work with you. This person will meet with your child and family to get to know you and your concerns. He or she will listen to you and talk with you about your child’s or family’s problems and ways to deal with them.
You and the person working with you will decide on the treatment goals that you should work towards. You may have counselling sessions with our mental health workers (Sometimes this is called therapy). You may also use some of our other services or talk with other mental health workers.
You and our staff will regularly look at your treatment plan to make sure that it is meeting your needs.
Our service will end when you and our staff agree that it is time to end treatment. Usually this happens when you have reached your goals.
What are some of the goals for treatment that families have?
Families may have some of these goals for treatment:
- to get along better,
- to deal with stress better,
- to deal with major changes in family life,
- to help their children,
- to stay together as a family, and
- to make sure their home is a safe place to live.
What are some of the goals for treatment that children have?
Children may have some of these goals for their treatment:
- to have a happier family,
- to handle their feelings in a better way,
- to be more successful at school,
- to get rid of frightening or unhappy feelings, and
- to have more friends.
Who are our staff?
Our staff come from many different cultural and social backgrounds. They have many different skills.
- All our mental health workers have experience working with children and families.
- Some staff have special training in treatments called play therapy, family therapy, or group therapy, or in dealing with difficult behaviours.
- Some staff are specialists such as psychologists and psychiatrists. These people are specially trained to deal with difficult feelings or behaviours.
What rights do users of our services have?
You and your children have these rights when you use our services.
- You can use our services only if you agree to. No one can force you to use our services.
- Information about you or your child can be given to people outside Peel Children's Centre only if you agree and you give us your permission in writing. But we may have to give others information about you or your child if the law says we must.
- Teenagers 12 years of age and older can have private counselling without their parent’s permission.
What if you have a problem with your counsellor?
If you have a problem with your counsellor, you should try to talk about it with him or her. Talking may be enough to solve your problem with your counsellor.
If you cannot talk about the problem, you may call and talk to the counsellor's supervisor. He or she will listen to you and suggest ways to solve the problem.
Sometimes, you may have to have another counsellor. But usually we find that problems with counsellors can be solved.
In what other ways can parents take part in our services?
There are many ways that you can take part in our services. Ask our staff for information about any of these things. Or look for information about them in our waiting rooms.
- You may join a support group so that you can share ideas, concerns, and successes with other parents.
- You can tell us what you like or do not like about our services.
- You can join with our staff to ask governments for the best quality services for children, teenagers, and their families.
How can you tell us about how well we did?
When you finish with our services, we will ask you to tell us how well we did. Please give us your honest opinions about our services. We are always trying to improve them.
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