New facility for mentally ill youth opens
Last Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009 | 5:15 PM MT
CBC News
A new state-of-the-art treatment centre for adolescents with mental health disorders, operated by Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health, or CASA, was officially opened in Strathcona County, east of Edmonton, Monday.
The new Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health facility in Sherwood Park was opened on Monday. (CBC) Michael Ganne, 14, has just graduated from the program, and his mother, Kim Ganne, described the experience as a new beginning for her family.
"It took a lot of work and realization to accept the truths of our failings as a family," Ganne said.
"Through multi-family parent support groups, family meetings, and the wonderful communication from the CASA team. I realized and learned he wasn't broken … we were all working on the wrong wiring for our family, we needed re-wiring and re-alignment and that's what CASA offered us," she said.
"The hardest part for me was to learn how to let my child … be personally accountable and responsible to be the child and not the boss," Ganne added.
The facility has 20 residential beds, eight day-treatment spaces, four classrooms and a gymnasium.
Finance Minister Iris Evans, who represents Sherwood Park, was on hand, describing the facility as an example of what the province is striving for in terms of placing people with mental health issues in the community.
"This is the kind of new mental health facility that our province wants to invest in and I think it's the right thing," Evans said.
The Alberta government announced in August that it's closing 250 acute-care beds at Alberta Hospital Edmonton, one of the largest mental health hospitals in the province, and moving patients into facilities in the community.
"This is the type of place that we hope in community settings that people with mental health issues can go.
The Alberta Hospital has served a wonderful purpose in its day … now [we're] trying to find better places," Evans said. "This is one of those better spaces."
