Renovations, which began on Rorison House on the Pilot Butte campus last fall, have been completed. It has been converted from a ten bed facility to a spacious environment to provide treatment to six individuals. The program has been designed to fill a community gap in the child welfare and adolescent mental health continuum.

“We are eagerly looking forward to having a service for young people to transition back into the community with a program designed to meet their specific needs,” commented Vice-President of Residential Services at Ranch Ehrlo Society, Malcolm Neill.

The overarching purpose of the program is to build capacity within the community and families as they support and care for children with mental health needs. The families in this program will benefit from a greater intensity of supports and services than what are available through existing publicly funded services. These supports and services will be delivered either as a step up from home to divert hospital admission or step down from inpatient status to reintegrate home.

Neill added, “This new program is real about successful partnering to help youth. Partnerships with families, local psychiatry services, the health region, and Social Services will help create successful aftercare plans for our client’s successful return to their communities.”

There are still a few program details that need to be finalized but the agency hopes to have the program up and running soon.