The Working with Children and Youth with Complex Mental Health Needs project has delivered its final two webinars of a nine-part series. To date, more than 3,300 people have participated in the webinars, either by attending the live sessions or by watching the recordings afterward. The webinar series touched on a wide range of topics related to the systemic and social interactions that can impact the complexity of children and youth’s mental health. This has included topics such as the social determinants of health, child protection laws and children and youth involved with the criminal justice system. The final two webinars also covered important themes and are summarized below.
The eighth webinar was hosted by Hershel Russell, a psychotherapist and educator on transgender health, and focused on gender-independent kids. Russell helped to dispel myths around gender binaries and painted a colorful picture for participants about the complexity and diversity of mental health issues that gender-independent children and their families can face. The webinar equipped practitioners with ideas around what responsive, affirming and supportive strategies look like within the context of dealing with these children’s mental health. The full webinar, along with a host of resources provided by Russell, is available on the webinar’s page of the project website.
The final webinar was delivered by Dr. Ajit Ninan, a pediatric psychiatrist at the Child and Parent Resource Centre in London, Ontario. The webinar aimed to provide participants with a better understanding about how the effects of substance abuse (intoxication and withdrawal) and dependence differ from psychiatric illness. The webinar hoped to help practitioners better treat and assist youth who suffer from substance use & possible mental health issues.
If you missed any of the webinars, you can view them on the project website. After watching the recording, please be sure to fill out an evaluation.