North of Superior Programs is designated a Schedule 3 facility under the Mental Health Act, and as such it is necessary to have psychiatric service for clients. This service is coordinated by the Clinical Director, Dr. Abraham Rudnick, through the University of Western Ontario. Psychiatrists who are current and former faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the university make approximately 20 fly-in trips a year, working out of the seven agency offices. These psychiatrists provide office-based psychiatric services to clients as well as professional consultation to the staff in North of Superior Programs in addition to hospital consultations for agency clients.

When feasible, psychiatrists bring with them, medical students from the University of Western Ontario. These students observe the psychiatrist working, interact with the mental health workers in the office, view the medical facilities in the community, learn about Northern, under-serviced areas and actually take part in interviews with clients. It is an intensive learning experience for the students.

The agency provides a placement training environment for up-coming professionals in social work, addictions and occupational therapy. These students come from Lakehead University, McMaster University, Confederation College, and the University of Manitoba.

So what services does North of Superior offer? There are adult mental health, child mental health, addictions treatment, mobile crisis response for seriously mentally ill and children and the Integrated Services for Northern Children (ISNC) programs, as well as the Senior Volunteers in Service program and the Home Maintenance Service Model. This is "birth to death" coverage of the population, so there are no gaps in service coverage. Mental health and addiction workers are expected to deal with all of the age groups. The ISNC Case Managers, Senior Volunteers and the Home Maintenance Workers deal with specific age groups. Similarly, the majority of workers deal with the full range of presenting problems, ranging from "problems in living" to serious mental illness. The services cover the spectrum of secondary and tertiary prevention. Programs are offered that cover the following services offered in the urban center of Thunder Bay of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) outpatient and assessment departments, Smith Clinics outpatient services, Family Services of Thunder Bay, Children's Centre Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay Physical and Sexual Assault, the adult and adolescent sexual offender services, St. Joseph Hospital's Eating Disorder outpatient services and outpatient counselling services of Thunder Bay Health Science Centre. There are no fees for any service.

Mental Health Program: The Mental Health Program is dually funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Ministry of Community and Social Services. This funding provides 11 Mental Health Workers who serve both children and adults. Services include, counselling, individual therapy, marital/relationship, family therapy, group therapy, psychiatric counselling, consultation referrals, public education, psychiatric consultation and parenting skills. For the most seriously mentally ill, the agency is now offering home based intervention.

Addiction Programs: The Addiction Program is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long term Care to provide the agency with 3.5 full time employment. Service is for adolescents and adults for assessment/referral and outpatient treatment. Referral may be on a voluntary or court ordered basis.

Integrated Services for Northern Children - Service to children from the ages of 6-18 years of age. Funded by three Ministries; Ministry of Health, Ministry of Community and Social Services and Ministry of Education. There are 5 full time Case Managers.

The agency provides outpatient counselling services for people with Eating disorders. Psychiatric support to the mental health workers around Eating Disorders is provided by Hospital for Sick Children and the Toronto Hospital through the Ontario Community Outreach Program for Eating Disorders.

In conjunction with other community service providers, such as the ambulance services, nurses, O.P.P., and the local fire department, the agency participates in and in fact, provides leadership for the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing team for the Thunder Bay North East district. In turn, this team works co-operatively with a similar team set up in Thunder Bay.

North of Superior Programs delivers a voluntary service to both adults and children, victims and perpetrators of abuse. There is also service provided to both juvenile and adult offenders as a result of court orders. This may take the form of anger management or sexual offender out patient treatment, etc. This necessitates a close working relationship with the probation workers.

Special privileges at five (5) municipal hospitals enables the hospitals via the physicians, to call the mental health offices for a worker to attend an individual for assessment/counselling and for the worker to chart on the patient charts. The worker, nurse and patient physician work closely together. These linkages are backed by formal protocol and written notification of special privileges. There is also the formal protocol with the Children's Aid Society around the issues of reporting and counselling. The agency has developed protocols with the Associations for Community Living in Geraldton and Nipigon to provide service to the developmentally challenged individuals who have a dual diagnosis. Similarly, there are protocols with 5 district hospitals to provide service to those individuals admitted to the Long Term Care Units. This has been expanded to include training for North of Superior staff, by the Psychogeriatric Team from the TBRHSC, in order for the staff to provide primary mental status assessments of the elderly in their own communities, prior to referral to the Psychogeriatric Team itself, and after involvement with the team, to provide home based monitoring of individuals. A newly developed protocol between North of Superior Programs and Thunder Bay Health Science Centre, Mental Health Services, provides the opportunity for seamless service delivery when the person returns to a home community upon discharge from the hospital.

Collaborating Ontario Medical Schools:

• Fly-in Psychiatric Services
  (Faculty: Dr. K. Balachandra, Dr. F. Davis,  Dr. V. Dugall, Dr. W. Komer, Dr. A. Rudnick, Dr. B. Surti)

Psychiatrists from the London Area have provided ongoing fly-in consultations to the North of Superior Community Mental Health Program since 1988. These clinics are coordinated from London by Dr. A. Rudnick, the Clinical Director through the Extended Campus Program, University of Western Ontario. Some of the clinicians maintain an academic relationship with the Department of Psychiatry University of Western Ontario as Full Time or Part Time Faculty Members. The psychiatric consultations are provided to the North of Superior Programs clinical offices at Marathon, Manitouwadge, Nipigon, Geraldton/Longlac, Schreiber.

• Clinical consultations through video conferencing

Schedule of Clinics:

Contact: