Youth Program

The Youth program offers outpatient services only and serves adolescents ages 12 to 17 who reside in the Montreal, Montérégie and Laval regions. Though the program is primarily school-based, services are also provided to adolescents served by the youth protection network.

Pavillon Foster provides direct services in numerous high schools under the six anglophone school boards and also at each of its local sites.

Intervention services include comprehensive assessment and individual therapy based on a motivational approach. Treatment objectives are reduction or elimination of harmful patterns of addictive behaviour, coping skill acquisition, relapse prevention and social reintegration. Whenever possible and appropriate, parents are directly involved from the outset in the assessment and intervention process for individual youth clients.

Pavillon Foster is also part of the region of Montreal youth access mechanism in substance abuse and is responsible for English speaking youth. The access mechanism ensures that all partners screen and refer identified youth to appropriate specialty services within 7 days.

In addition, Pavillon Foster’s youth program also offers training opportunities for school personnel in screening, referral and motivational interviewing techniques. The objective is to provide school counsellors and teachers with a contemporary understanding of addictive behaviours and develop skills in detection, screening and referral of potential addiction problems.