Poster Presentations

Individuals with acquired brain injury, with a variety of cognitive and emotional challenges, face unique obstacles while trying to navigate a complicated process in the justice system. This poster presentation is designed to create a better understanding of ABI and the related challenges experienced by these individuals. This poster explores executive functioning deficits that affect one’s ability to process conversations, retain critical information, and make logical decisions. In addition, we have provided practical strategies that professionals can use to provide support to individuals with ABI.

*Aggression Toward Family / Caregivers in Childhood and Adolescence (AFCCA) describes a pattern of behaviour characterized by aggressive behaviour toward family members or other caregivers, causing significant harm (physical and/or psychological) to the child/adolescent, the person(s) the behaviour is directed toward, and witnessing family members. While many know of the existence of AFCCA, it is frequently unreported and not widely discussed.

This poster will provide an overview of findings by the National Consortium on AFCCA, a group of professionals / service providers, researchers, policy makers and families with lived experience, as well as highlights of Ontario’s new AFCCA Family Supports Program, an Ontario government funded demonstration project run by Adopt4Life. Presenters will demonstrate in the poster how this ground-breaking program, believed to be the first in Canada, is collaborating with sectors including justice, mental and child welfare to build safety, security and permanency among Ontario families experiencing this complex type of aggression.

Drug Treatment Court is an intensive, therapeutic justice program that works to divert high risk, high need individuals from terms of incarceration to community-based supervision. The program takes a multi-disciplinary team approach by integrating criminal justice, treatment and community partners to hold participants accountable by practising honesty, addressing criminal and addictive thinking patterns, while supporting participants on their recovery journey.

The role of the Dual Diagnosis Justice Coordinator/Case Manager (DDJC/CM) is to provide support to individuals with developmental disabilities and high support or complex care needs that find themselves involved with the justice system. Across Ontario, the DDJC/CM’s, housed within the Community Networks of Specialized Care, work to ensure that all persons with a developmental disability experience equitable access to justice. In partnership with varying justice professionals, community service providers, and personal support systems, DDJC/CMs help to ensure that an individual can navigate their justice matters with greater facility, comprehensive representation, and access to supportive resources. Through a cross-sectoral case study, the poster will examine the benefits a DDJC/CM can bring to a collaborative justice team. A collection of tips and resources that can be applied to your practice will be shared with the poster.

The poster will provide a brief overview of FASD, the characteristics of the diagnosis and its relation to the current justice system and its practices. Factors that influence adults being left undiagnosed and the value that diagnosis can bring will be demonstrated. Barriers and impact that clients face living with FASD will also be shared.

Ontario lacks an equitable system of care for traumatic brain injury (TBI); quality of care and health outcomes depend on where you live, available funding, and severity/type of injury. These inequities are magnified for persons with complex needs. By engaging key partners from across the province (n=170), we developed evidence-based standardized but adaptable ideal TBI care pathways for those living with TBI of any severity, and companion quality indicators. Partners included people with lived experience, clinicians, researchers, funders, and community service providers (public and 3rd party). Ensuring that the pathway serves persons with complex needs who have been traditionally marginalized is a top priority.

DJNO’s Prison Project has spent the last 9 months doing qualitative community-based research around the intersection of disability, race and the criminal legal system while providing concrete prisoner support. Using humanizing personal narratives as examples and backed through data, the team will share the results through the poster presentation their research, lessons throughout, and why we should (and how we can!) start pushing for transformative justice and abolition in our communities.

In April 2020, and over the course of the pandemic, Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) introduced a variety of emergency service changes to respond to challenges presented by COVID-19. As part of these changes, LAO waived certificate eligibility requirements that impacted persons and families who were at particular risk, e.g.: detained persons, including psychiatric patients, victims and survivors of domestic violence, and families engaged with child protection agencies, particularly Indigenous clients. While these service enhancements were temporary, there are lessons learned about the value of legal aid especially during personal and public crises.

This poster will provide an overview about the impact of LAO’s pandemic response in relation to legal aid Policy Strategies, including core client strategies. It will also reflect on best legal aid practices and lessons learned; and engage discussion about how we can build a more accessible legal system together, especially for vulnerable Ontarians with complex needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health response severely disrupted the delivery of mental health and substance use services. This had a significant impact on the lives of people being released from incarceration.

Our poster presentation will consist of three parts. First, we will present findings from a qualitative study on the impact of COVID-19 and the public health response on MHSU services. Based on 21 semi-structured interviews with service providers, the poster will share how the public health policy was not tailored to people released from incarceration. The implications of our findings with a panel consisting of collaborating community partners who deliver MHSU services will be noted in the poster.

The poster will also focus on how the findings of our study and the experiences of service providers can be used to improve the delivery of MHSU services and advocate for policy changes.

Partnership program where mental health staff work with the local police departments in the area to attend to calls for service where a mental health concern is identified to attempt to prevent charges, or emergency room access and connect individuals to the services and programs that would be helpful to their mental health concerns.

This poster will be discussing the pre-charge diversion program in Peterborough, ON. It highlights how providing support to those who have mental health concerns *before* they are introduced to the justice system creates a unique opportunity to practice community care and reduce the load on the justice system. In 2022, there was a 58% success rate in those who participated in the program (N=17). Participants were contacted within one week of receiving a pre-charge to provide urgent response. Individuals were connected to an organization within a week of their intakes. This poster provides future recommendations and offers a snapshot on the increase in pre-charge diversion referral , focusing on the impact on the community.

The Release from Custody program was established to provide short-term transitional case management support to persons with mental health and addictions issues who are leaving detention from a provincial correctional institution. This function is intended to support successful reintegration by supporting transition and access to community mental health and addictions services. The program outcomes are three-fold:

• to facilitate transition into community
• to reintegrate incarcerated individuals with mental health and addictions issues into the community living with appropriate supports to help alleviate recidivism and
• to establish “networks” of support for previously incarcerated individuals in the receiving community.

RFC workers engage persons detained prior to release. RFC collaborate with and support discharge planners and social workers at the institutions in order to plan and support successful integration.

Situation Tables are one example of a preventative measure implemented to reduce victimization experienced by marginalized individuals. This community-based research project focused on the Situation Table online training that was released by Laurier University in 2016. It examined the overall effectiveness of the training and assessed gaps in the preparedness of human service providers following the training. Surveys were used to assess the readiness of members in the Haliburton, Kawartha, and Pine Ridge regions. Results indicate that the Laurier University Situation Table online training is effective in providing training with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to start participating at the Situation Table. However, identified gaps may be addressed to improve participants’ sense of preparedness for the assessment of Acutely Elevated Risk, and to improve consistency across different Tables, and among members/agencies at a particular table.

To learn about the risks associated with working with individuals who are suffering with traumatic stress symptoms (Compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma)

To learn strategies to reduce the impact of secondary traumatic stress (STS) through low impact debriefing and strategies to remain balanced during stressful work.

The number of people with dementia (PwD) receiving care from family and friends in Canadian communities is increasing (Statistic Canada, 2020). Within these complex and dynamic relationships of care, PwD may both be the victims and perpetrators of aggressive and violent behaviours that involve criminal violations (Cipriani et a., 2016). In some cases, dementia-related violence forms part of long standing experiences of intimate partner violence (Band-Winterstein & Avieli, 2019).

Justice and human services personnel who work with PwD and their caregivers in these contexts face various challenges including limited training regarding the nature of dementia and the risks of related violence, and effective ways to engage with PwD. This poster will share knowledge and best practises regarding how to identify and respond to diverse forms of violence in dementia care-giving relationships. It will support participants in responding in person-centred, trauma-informed ways that seek to prioritize the safety and well-being of both the PwD and their caregiver.

In 2022 CMHA-WECB identified the need for peer support and a recovery college to supplement our community-based mental health programs. The College works to provide support during wait times for service, as a step down for individuals discharged from service, and as an offering for the general public to learn more about mental health and addictions. After successfully receiving an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant, we hired peer support workers to research and develop the College. This included an environmental scan, research of Recovery College’s throughout the world, and development of initial course content. This poster will outline its development and the successes experienced by the more than 300 students in nine months.