Respite Care Services

Overview of Service:

• The Respite Care Services provide parents/guardians, caregivers and/or out-of-care providers (as applicable) who have primary responsibility for a child or youth with a temporary break from the emotional and physical demands of caregiving to maintain or improve overall family functioning and wellbeing.
• Respite Care Services are an overnight service, provided outside of the parents/Guardians’, caregivers’ and/or out-of-care providers’ home and are part of a support plan to maintain a child/youth within the family, and/or keep children and youth out of full-time care.
• Respite Care benefits children and youth by providing them a predictable respite environment and schedule, maintaining their important routines and supports (e.g., continuing to attend and receive their community therapies; continuing routines with extended family), and providing children and youth the opportunity to try new activities or interests, when possible.
• Respite Care can be planned for or offered during emergencies or times of crisis, and provides children and youth a culturally safe, trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, structured and warm environment, with qualified Service Provider Personnel who can meet the unique day-to-day needs of the child or youth.

Low-Barrier Short-Term Stabilization Care Services

Overview of Service:

• Low-Barrier Short-Term Stabilization Care Services provides culturally safe, trauma-informed, individualized supports for children and youth who are experiencing a crisis and/or instability in their living environment (family, out-of-care arrangement or In Care placement). Low-Barrier Short-Term Stabilization Care Services supports children, youth and families who often experience barriers to service, such as those without a formal diagnosis, those experiencing a functional crisis, or those experiencing living instability.
• Low-Barrier Short-Term Stabilization Care Services focuses on crisis mitigation and healing through a harm-reduction lens by providing the child/youth with culturally safe, individualized supports. SHSS Service Providers work with the child/youth and their SHSS Care Circle to prepare a child or youth to transition back home (or to a new living arrangement if required) by supporting the child/youth’s and their family’s continued connection or reconnection with the appropriate community supports to meet their ongoing needs.
• Supported by the child/youth’s SHSS Care Circle, Low-Barrier Short-Term Stabilization Care Service actively connects Child and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) and Children and Youth with Support Needs (CYSN) services, as well as other community supports (such as substance-use services) to provide interventions that support the child/youth’s move toward stabilization. The service also actively engages the child/youth’s parents/Guardians, caregivers and/or out-of-care providers (as applicable) to ensure readiness to support the child/youth’s successful return home.

Emergency Care Services

Overview of Service:

• Emergency Care Services provides a short-term placement of up to 30 days for children and youth.
• The Emergency Care Services are intended to be used in situations where a child/youth has an emergent need and a safe placement is urgently required, but a less intrusive placement option is not available and the child/youth is not known to require stabilization.
• Emergency Care Services contributes to successful transition planning for children and youth by:

 -Providing immediate safe and trauma informed care;

-Providing a concentrated period of time to develop a deeper understanding of the child/youth and their family’s unique needs and circumstances; gather the SHSS Care Circle to further explore extended family/community care provider options or other appropriate placement; and, to support the child/youth’s successful transition to an alternative Service Type or to new care providers (with priority being placed on returning the child/youth to their family or to another family member); and

-Supporting Resource Workers and Primary Professionals in gathering information to support the child/youth’s planning and transition back home or to their next living arrangement.

Specialized Long-Term Care Services

Overview of Service:

• Specialized Long-Term Care Services provides a 24-hour staffed and specialized environment for children and youth who require intense supervision and support, including those with exceptional needs, where all other living arrangements have been unable to provide the required level of support. Specialized Long-Term Care Services:

-Provides a stable team of highly skilled SHSS Care Providers who are equipped to meet each child/youth’s unique day to day needs and support their continued growth, development and wellness; and

-Promotes attachment, emotional ties, and belonging by providing an environment where a child’s/youth’s family, extended family, and community are welcome and engaged in their ongoing care.