In 1987, Mary Hyndman, Margaret Shone and a few like-minded parents came up with a revolutionary idea.
They proposed that a new community board be set up to assume responsibility for delivering mental health services to children and adolescents in the Edmonton area.
Their dream: to create a top-notch, family centered, community-based mental health and addictions services organization for Alberta's children and families. CASA, Child Adolescent and Family Mental Health, was born.
In 1991, backed by an operating grant from the Alberta government, CASA opened its doors to 450 children and adolescents who had previously been enrolled in a variety of residential and outpatient programs across the city.
CASA's unique, family-focused, community-based approach quickly caught on. Admissions soon doubled. Then they doubled again, as demand for its services soared.
In 1997, CASA formed an affiliation agreement with the University of Alberta and the forerunner of Capital Health. A year later, the CASA Foundation - now a formidable fundraising machine, with hundreds of generous donors - was formed.
By 2003, it was clear CASA had outgrown the ability to provide its residential program in the antiquated Yellowhead Youth Centre facility, or its clinic and day programs in the crumbling, half-century-old building that once housed St. Agnes School. Once again, its loyal supporters rallied to the cause, and CASA purchased St. Agnes in 2008 from the Edmonton Catholic School Board.
One year later, CASA House - a specially designed 19-bed residential treatment facility - opened in Strathcona County, and in 2010, design work began on a brand new facility to replace St. Agnes.
Fast-forward to September 2016: the impressive $24 million, 43,000-square-foot CASA Centre facility opened its doors in Edmonton's leafy Allendale neighbourhood, where St. Agnes once stood.
Backed by $17 million in funding from the Alberta government and a further $7 million raised through the efforts of the CASA Foundation and its many donors - including George and Teresa Cantalini, co-chairs of the CASA Capital Campaign - CASA Centre is the culmination of a 30-year dream.
"A school (St. Agnes) built 62 years ago and not designed for year-round occupancy stood on the site of the CASA Centre," CASA CEO Dr. Denise Milne told a crowd of 300 guests who attended the opening ceremony last fall.
"We purchased the school eight years ago and demolished it two years ago. It is now a unique trauma-informed facility designed specifically for the mental health treatment of children."
Staffed by teams of psychiatrists, pediatricians, psychologists, nurses, social workers, child care counsellors, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, classroom behavioural specialists, teachers and others, CASA Centre's warm, homey atmosphere is the antithesis of a sterile hospital setting. The building features lots of colourful art (including that of local artist Vera Kennedy), rounded walls, oversized windows, a big kitchen and a full-sized gym.
"We do everything here in a team approach. So on your team you might have a psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist, a speech therapist if necessary, nursing, and the psychiatrists work in partnership with all these people," says Milne.
"We have 22 programs serving kids from age zero to 18, although we often have kids over 18 as well, even though we're not mandated to. What happens for the psychiatrists here, which I think is very different from other organizations, is that we're family-centred. So the family is very involved, whatever that family makeup is," says Milne.
The growth of CASA's facilities - there are now four CASA locations, including CASA Downtown and CASA Fort Road - and the commensurate growth of its staff, which now exceeds 130 professionals and support staff, reflects the explosive growth in demand for its services.
CASA served more than 4,300 children and their families in the Edmonton area last year. That's nearly a 10-fold increase since 1991.
"There is nothing like CASA anywhere else in Canada. Other programs such as the CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) and SickKids in Toronto are mainly hospital-based with community outreach programs. But there is nothing like CASA that is situated out in the community."
Despite the organization's growing reputation, Milne and the CASA board, led by Chair Faye Parker, felt there was still one big missing piece: incorporating a bigger mental health research component in CASA's operations, in partnership with the U of A's Department of Psychiatry.
Now, that dream is also about to become reality, with the creation of the CASA Research Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. This new 10-year position is expected to attract top international research talent to work on projects that align with the province's renewed focus on quality mental health care for children and youth.
"We're very excited about this," says Milne. "In 1997 we signed an affiliation agreement with the U of A and what was the AHS of the day, regarding a research agreement. What the new CASA Research Chair represents is the fulfillment of that agreement 20 years later."
There is currently a gap between the appropriate translation of research into frontline clinical practice. The CASA Research aims to close the gap in published research in children's mental health through community-focused, leading-edge research, in collaboration with community partners, CASA's own frontline workers, and the families CASA serves.
"The idea of the Research Chair is to be community situated. So the Chair and the two associates would be located at CASA Centre, and we'd wrap our clinical teams around them. We anticipate the Chair will be an internationally well-recognized individual in the field," says Milne.
CASA has agreed to raise up to $500,000 per year over the next 10 years, for a total of $5 million, as its financial contribution to supporting the new CASA Research Chair, says Milne. The U of A's Department of Psychiatry has agreed to shoulder $7 million of costs in the form of full professorships under the pending AMHSP funding structure.
CASA is currently the primary teaching site for child psychiatry, notes Dr. Xin-Min Li, Chair of the U of A's Department of Psychiatry.
"CASA is an ideal research lab. We have 12 child psychiatrists on board, a number of pediatricians, and we're multi-disciplinary, including psychology, social work, nursing, classroom behavioural specialists, the whole gamut. And we have partnerships with Edmonton Public School programs," Milne explains.
"So it's going to be really fascinating to start answering good research questions on what's going to make a difference for individuals with mental health challenges and disorders, and their families. We're very excited about this. It is long overdue."