Caregivers providing services to youth in difficulty (ages 0–5 years) found that parents frequently expressed—right from the outset—similar needs related to attachment, child development, emotional regulation and behaviour management. Without a structured core, interventions varied from case to case, leading to content repetition, significant resource mobilization and considerable access delays of up to a year.

The AMORCE workshops were designed at the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest to address these issues. This consists of a structured series of four open-ended group discussions that give families convenient access to essential knowledge from the outset. The workshops are designed to help parents understand their child’s development and strengthen their ability to take action on a day-to-day basis.

With this immediate service, families can start the process in the same week as their request for services. This significantly reduces the initial service access time to well below the 30-day organizational target. AMORCE can serve as a foundation on which to build further services. In many situations, this initial intervention fully meets the needs identified in the assessment, which helps avoid longer or more specialized service episodes.

Lead:
Dominique Lavigne-Alarie, Psychoeducator and Clinical Supervisor

Contributors:
Karine Imamedjan, Social Worker
Joannie Lanctôt, Psychoeducator
Jessica Smith, Psychoeducator
Julie Simoneau, Special Education Technician