The Youth Intensive Case Management Team (YICMT) is for youth in community experiencing the most persistent and complex substance use with additional vulnerabilities.
These might include:
- homelessness and precarious housing
- living as members of a marginalized population
- living with mental health challenges and/or developmental disabilities
- being high risk for exploitation
- experiencing heavy criminal justice involvement.
Youth can get support from team of professionals including case managers, registered nurses, and those who can provide psychiatric services and other mental health supports.
The overarching goal of the team is to support youth to get the care they need. They achieve this by collaborating on assessments, treatment planning, and day-to-day goals and supports for youth.
The members of the YICMT work together to deliver services to youth whose needs have not been adequately met by existing services.
This coordinated approach with a team of care providers helps ensure every youth receives the services needed to support recovery.
Youth who are supported by the YICMT access services in the community as opposed to office-based settings, reducing barriers and improving accessibility to care.
Active substance use is a condition of referral to the program.
YICMT is:
- a voluntary service, and youth who are referred need to provide informed consent.
- highly individualized and the length of time youth receive services will be based on their situation and recovery, not a pre-set amount of time.
- able to provide support seven days a week, 365 days per year from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
YICMT is not a youth crisis team. It has a caseload of clients who require case management services.
Principles of YICMT
• YICMT is for a small population of youth with the most persistent and complex substance use and wellness challenges.
• The primary goal of the team is to promote wellness through non-judgmental engagement and community treatment.
• YICMT works to reduce harm within a youth’s substance use, focusing on the youth’s stage of change (where the youth is “at” in their use and recovery).
Clinical Frameworks Guiding YICMT
• Harm Reduction
• Trauma-Informed Practice
• Stages of Change
• Cultural Safety
• Gender and Sexuality Safety
• Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR)
Functions
• Assertive community outreach and engagement with youth
• Assessment and Care Planning
• Direct Service Provision
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Follow-up
• Information, Liaising, Advocacy, Consultation and Collaboration
Core services
• Community collaboration including referrals, liaising and advocacy
• Case management and outreach
• Crisis assessment, planning and intervention
• Support to youth’s family and community
• Individual, group and family skill building
• Life skills support, including school and employment
• Medication management
• Harm Reduction supports
• Collaboration with Psychiatry
Goals
• Engage and establish therapeutic relationships
• Provide client centered and strength based care directed by youth goals
• To promote health of youth and contribute to achievement of better health outcomes
• To improve coordination of services and enhance integration of services for youth and families
• To reduce avoidable hospitalizations
• To reduce harms of substance-use for youth and families
• To enhance reach to health and psychosocial services
• To advocate for safe, stable housing
• To reduce involvement with the criminal justice system
