Germaine Dechant and the history of children's mental health
February 20, 2006
By Nicole Zummach
EDMONTON, AB // How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been? It's a familiar saying that Germaine Dechant would no doubt agree with. As executive director of the Child and Adolescent Services Association (CASA) in Edmonton, she's been involved with children's mental health for years. Yet it wasn't until she was named as a Muttart Fellow in 2004 that she had the chance to delve into the past and learn about the history and evolution of her field. Funded by the Muttart Foundation, the fellowship enabled Dechant to take a one-year sabbatical from her regular job and pursue her own research around the issues and history of children's mental health in Alberta. CharityVillage spoke with Dechant about the findings of her research, the future of children's mental health, and what she is bringing back to her role with CASA.
CharityVillage: Why did you feel it was important to research the history of children's mental health?
Germaine Dechant: Well, I've been working in children's mental health for about ten years and I've found throughout my experience here that it's really hard to find answers to questions about the evolution of services. People who work in this field right now just don't have that history. There isn't what some would call that corporate memory. I think that's really important and it's an area that I'm interested in, so I wanted to spend some time focusing on that question.
What I really wanted to do was create a focus for discussion, so that maybe this would be the beginning for general discussions about children's mental health in a much broader sense than we have now, and that in some way, over time it would benefit families.
CV: What did you learn through your research?
GD: Oh, I learned a ton! And some of it wasn't learning as much as confirmation of my experiences and what I was thinking about all of this. Certainly, [I learned] that children's mental health is a very new field, not just in Alberta but also in the whole country. Even within children's mental health, infant mental health services are just emerging. I saw, as well, in the literature that for years whether a child received services in mental health, or in child welfare, or in the justice system, or in services for children with developmental disabilities, it was really based on luck more than design. It depended, to a great extent, on where they lived. For example, if they lived in a rural community they had almost no access to services.
I also learned a lot about Alberta's history; its first 100 years were so interesting. I developed some compassion for the province, for its struggles as it was trying to meet the social needs of the population, while also dealing with the challenges of building its infrastructure. They had immense challenges, so it's not surprising that they weren't focusing on children's mental health. I'm not saying this as an excuse for Alberta at all, but as recognition that the province had a lot on its plate.
CV: What are your views on the subject of funding for children's mental health?
GD: Children's mental health, especially, has been the orphan of health services. Even within mental health, it was always secondary to services that were needed for adults. The needs in the adult population were so great and were seen as the priority. Children's mental health services were seriously neglected, and I don't use that word lightly. I really believe they were neglected, and to a great extent, continue to be underfunded across the province.
If we neglect children's mental health - and I'm not making this up, it is well documented in a lot of literature - the children who have mental health issues at a young age continue to have issues as they get older. So it's really, really important for us to focus our attention on prevention.
CV: What would you like to see your province do to improve children's mental health services?
GD: Well, I think there has to be some much clearer organizational structures for children's mental health. There are still great debates in the province about whether it belongs in children's services or mental health, and who is really accountable for this service. It's still a question that hasn't been well answered, I think. Even though it's framed in the mental health system, children's services is doing a lot of work to see improvements in children's mental health. So, it's an important question to answer and one that would make a difference.
CV: Now that you're back at CASA, how is your research impacting your work?
GD: It has renewed my passion for my work and my determination to make a difference. I've seen the challenges of people who've come before us and I have tremendous respect for that. It's really helped me recognize that having organizations like this one can make a really big difference and it's important to preserve and nurture them. I hope that when people read the book I've put together that they will feel really proud for being in the field they are in.
Germaine Dechant has completed her book about the history of children's mental health in Alberta and it will be published by the Muttart Foundation.
To learn more about the Muttart Fellowship Program, visit: www.muttart.org/fellowsprogram.htm.
