The Dual Diagnosis Day Treatment Program

 

The Day Treatment Program is offered to Dual Diagnosed children in Simcoe County who are experiencing school related difficulties. The objective of the program is to allow the system to increase its capacity to successfully educate students who are identified as having a Dual Diagnosis and for the students to learn new coping strategies that will allow for successful school completion. The program would use an Applied Behavioural Analysis approach, which is an evidence based scientific approach to behaviour management. A variety of behaviour management and treatment modalities (life skills, anger management, and social skills) are incorporated to assist the student in acquiring the appropriate skills to manage their school days.

 

The classroom team is a collaboration of various agencies:

• The Simcoe County District School Board provides a classroom teacher and one educational assistant.
• Kinark Child and Family Services provides one Child and Youth Worker, access to a Social Worker and supervised by the agency’s Day Treatment Manager.
• Catulpa provides a half time DD day treatment worker to assist families in becoming a member of the school based team and to actively participate in goal setting and strategy development. The Triple P Stepping Stones Program will be delivered to the child’s caregiver.
• Behaviour Management Services provides the Behaviour Consultant that will lead the treatment planning for each student. The team will have access to the BMS consulting psychologist and the Dual Diagnosis Clinic.

The identified process for admission is as follows:

• The referral process to the Section 23 classroom would be initiated by the school principal with parental consent.
• They would ensure that all accessible school supports have been exhausted. This would include presentation at the COMPASS and Navigation team meetings if deemed appropriate.
• The School Board is responsible for completing the following assessments before submitting a referral; cognitive assessment, academic assessment and adaptive assessment.
• The completed referral package is forwarded to the appropriate school board’s Special Education Coordinator.
• The referring school will commit to attend all meetings and participate in transition planning and guarantee a desk for the child upon completion of the treatment program.

If deemed appropriate the package is sent to the lead mental health agency for processing.

• The BCFPI will be completed and a multi disciplinary team meeting will be organized including a representative from the referring school and the parents.
• The parents will agree to participate in the Stepping Stones Parenting Program to be delivered by the Catulpa Day Treatment Worker.
• The parents will agree to participate in all treatment plan meetings.

The school team would be responsible for completing a Biopsychosocial assessment.  This assessment would include identifying and treating any medical concerns, mental health concerns, speech and language assessments etc.  Each student receives a functional assessment indicating the function of the problematic behaviour/s.  Once the function of the behaviour/s is identified the consultant, along with input from the classroom team and parents, would begin to formulate a treatment plan.  The treatment plan would include steps to prevention of the problematic behaviour, steps for skill replacement of the problematic behaviour and finally steps to intervention should the problem behaviour occur at the school.

 

The strength of the program is highlighted by the guiding principle that successful reintegration of the student into their existing home school classroom is imperative. We envision the day treatment classroom as the hub for delivering supports to children and their families with a Dual Diagnosis.