Linda Conn, co-ordinator of Fresh Start, says the program’s success stems from its holistic approach to care.
A day program helps adolescents with psychological issues transition back into high school
While adolescence can be tough for many teens, it has been unusually challenging for Hannah. Like other young people who are dealing with mental health difficulties, the now 18-year-old has often felt frustrated and alone, and has missed a lot of school.
She has had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ever since childhood, she says, "but when I was 13, I was diagnosed with depression, and I already had anxiety. It was a combination of things." Her feelings of anxiety were such, she adds, that it was impossible for her to leave her home. As a result, she ended up losing out on a year and a half of high school.
In November 2013, however, Hannah began attending Sunnybrook's Fresh Start program, and her life began to change. "I had felt isolated through the whole of my teenage years, until I went there," she says.
Together with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Sunnybrook's Division of Youth Psychiatry has been running the intensive day-treatment program for almost three decades, transitioning troubled teens back to school.
The name Fresh Start was actually thought up by students who participated in the program, says Linda Conn, who has been its co-ordinator for the past 12 years. "These were kids who were not sick enough to be in hospital, but not well enough to be in either a traditional or even an alternative school," she explains.
Like Hannah, they are young people in recovery from mental health or addiction issues, who need a safe learning environment without the typical academic pressures of school, she adds. Rather, "the focus would be on therapy, and really helping them develop the skills to begin to assimilate and transition into school with more traditional classrooms."
With courses lasting anywhere from two to three months, class sizes are small – no more than eight students at a time. Taught by a qualified TDSB teacher and a child and youth counsellor, the Fresh Start classes take place in a portable classroom on the grounds of Sunnybrook's Bayview campus. Because participants may range in age from 14 to 19 years and are in different grades, the atmosphere is somewhat akin to an old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse, and the academic material is tailored to each student.
"The teacher is able to individualize all of the programs," Conn explains, "so that each student can earn the high-school credit commensurate with their grade."
The program's focus, however, is less on academic progress than it is on therapeutic recovery. Its focus is "on the process," says Conn, "and not the product."
By taking the stress off of academic advancement, she adds, the program's six-member team gets a better handle on how the kids are doing, "on what is getting in the way of them being able to focus, to concentrate and interact with other students," she says.
While mornings are spent on in-class projects that highlight critical and lateral thinking, afternoons are devoted to group therapy sessions. Facilitated by a team, including the youth and child counsellor, social workers and a psychiatrist, the themes range from life and social skills to creative expression, and health and well-being. Once a week, each teen meets with the program's consulting psychiatrist, Dr. David Kreindler.
The intimate class size made her feel comfortable, says Hannah, while the emphasis on using projects to assess learning skills, measure goals and track progress gave her the kind of structure she needed. "It pushes you at a certain point, and each week you have to set a new goal," she says.
Her participation in Fresh Start made it clear, she adds, "that it's my life, and that I have a say. That is one of the main things that they do there. They say, 'This is about you. This is your life, these are your choices and this is your treatment. This isn't about anyone else.'"
While returning to high school was still challenging, she felt that the program had laid the foundation for making the transition. What's more, she says, "they help you get set up after you leave. They don't leave you in the wind."
At the same time, she adds, "they don't want us to always have to rely on them. They want us to, finally, by the end of it, be able to say, 'You know what? I'm going to be okay.'"
Today Hannah attends regular classes at an alternative school, has made new friends and is attaining A's. "I didn't know I could get amazing grades before I went to my new school," she says, "but for me to be able to do that, I had to have been able to go to Fresh Start."
For Conn, what is behind the success of Fresh Start – aside from the great team of people she co-ordinates at Sunnybrook – is the innovative program's holistic approach.
"We look at all the needs of the students," she says. "Not just their mental health needs, but their learning needs. It is just really good wraparound care.
- Hannah, Fresh Start participant |
They say, ‘This is about you. This is This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with Sunnybrook. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.