On our campus recently, senior psychiatry residents and faculty from the University of Toronto’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program joined Pine River Institute staff and students for a three-day clinical training hosted by PRI’s Centre for Family Initiatives (CFI@PRI).
“I actually love when a student starts to push back and have a voice,” said Victoria Creighton, Pine River’s clinical training and family services director, during the session. “I just really will shine a light on that because I want to foster the authentic self, not the performative, placating teen.”
Led by Pine River’s experienced clinical team, the Working With Families training program covers core elements of Pine River’s unique and successful family model, including the maturity model, the parallel process and attunement. Drawing on PRI’s growing body of knowledge about the issues affecting youth struggling with addictive behaviours and other mental health challenges, and their families, the training is designed to help clinicians bring a deeper, more family-centred lens to their practice.
Thanks to donor support, CFI@PRI extends Pine River’s evidence-informed treatment approach beyond our campus, helping more youth and families across the province.
You can watch and hear more about CFI@PRI’s clinical training below.
“A lot of clinicians who work with children and adolescents today may hesitate to bring the family into therapy, even though many know how valuable it is,” said Amanda Lamb, PRI’s centre for family initiatives director. “It can be a daunting task, and we’re trying to break that down and teach clinicians how to incorporate families and caregivers into their work.”
Expanding Family-Focused Training
Dr. Karen Wang, who is the director of the child and adolescent psychiatry residency program at the University of Toronto and an adolescent inpatient psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences, has seen the impact firsthand. When Sunnybrook sought options to expand family therapy for its inpatients, Dr. Wang connected with Pine River for what she called a “very successful training” with the hospital’s clinical team.
In her role as program director at the University of Toronto, Dr. Wang said she wanted to then expose graduating residents to different models of family therapy.
“I think one of the special things about Pine River is that this model of care really informs everything — and it’s made life-changing differences,” she said. “We’ve referred to Pine River and we’ve seen the benefit of working with families.”
That sentiment has been echoed by other participants from across the province, representing organizations like the Salvation Army (Toronto) and Dilico Clinical Services in Thunder Bay.
Training That Makes a Difference
At Pine River, we measure what matters. In surveys from recent clinical trainings, 93 per cent of respondents said Pine River’s training facilitators were helpful, and nearly 80 per cent said they would recommend the workshop to other professionals working with youth.
“The information presented was fantastic,” said one participant. “It really explained an approach that considers all aspects of the family and support in a functional, ‘simple’ way.”
“Such an informative workshop!” said another. “I learned so many tangible strategies, activities and concepts that I can use in my practice.”
Supporting Professional Growth
CFI@PRI’s clinical training workshops are eligible for 18 continuing education credits (CECs) through Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals.
OAMHP’s review of the general content recognized that the learning objectives meet the criteria for best-known practice in continuing education and for educational requirements for mental health professionals.
Learn more about our clinical training workshops here: https://pineriverinstitute.com/community-resources/clinical-training/