Fresh Start

The Fresh Start Program is an intensive Day Treatment Program for youth with primary mood, anxiety, or psychotic disorders, offered as a co-operative program by our Division of Youth Psychiatry and the Toronto District School Board (ECPP/Education and Community Partnership Program).

Appropriate students:

• Have a primary mood, anxiety, or psychotic disorder;
• Are actively motivated to participate in treatment;
• Are eligible for enrolment in a TDSB high school, i.e.,
  • Are ages 14-20, and
  • Have completed Grade 8 and are currently registered in Grade 9, and
  • Have not yet graduated high school, and
  • Live in the City of Toronto – i.e., have a home postal code that begins with an ‘M’.

Under the care of a six-member inter-professional treatment team (Child & Youth Counsellor, Social Workers, Nurse, TDSB Teacher, and a Psychiatrist), Fresh Start's mission is to transition students back to a less treatment-intensive school program by treating the mental health issues interfering with the students’ ability to function in a regular classroom setting. The program provides a safe, school-like environment where students can develop critical thinking, independent learning and life skills. Students generally stay for 8-12 weeks.

• Fresh Start is a group program. Each student must have their own individual set of therapeutic goals. Students must be willing to work with the team to achieve their goals.
• Fresh Start is a "blended" program: skills acquired in the afternoon therapeutic groups are to be implemented in the morning academic portions of the day and vice versa.
• Since students will be working intensely on skill building throughout their enrolment, there is an opportunity to earn one high school credit as determined by the teacher. The focus of Fresh Start is therapeutic recovery, not academic progress.