IWK plans to open new mental health and addictions clinic at Mic Mac Mall

Children and youth who need help for an addiction or mental health issue could have access to a new clinic in Dartmouth sometime in 2025.

An IWK Health Centre staff of roughly 40 people will provide mental health and addictions services in Mic Mac Mall in an expanded space that used to be home to a Winners store.

Maureen Brennan, who oversees those services, said patients will have access to a multidisciplinary team. 

"We'll be offering a full suite of services by a large variety of mental health and addictions clinicians that include psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, youth care workers, recreation therapists, and child and adolescent psychiatrists," Brennan said in an interview Thursday.

The clinic will provide individual treatment and group therapy for children, youth, parents and caregivers, she said.

Locating a clinic in a mall is a first for the IWK, but Brennan said the Dartmouth location was chosen for its ease of access.

"It makes sense that we locate clinics across all of HRM so that families will not have to come downtown to the IWK Health Centre to look for parking," she said.

"It's very accessible, lots of parking and it's a real opportunity for us to create a therapeutic and trauma-informed space in a new way."

Staff will be made up of clinicians and support personnel from other IWK clinics in Halifax, Bedford, Lower Sackville and Dartmouth, and include new or just-hired employees.

There are no plans to close any of the other sites, Brennan said.

"We'll be looking at a few of those clinicians out of each of those offices and we'll be recruiting into those new positions."  

The hospital first started looking for new space in June 2020 when it issued a public tender. Brennan said when that proved unsuccessful, the hospital hired a leasing agent to conduct the search that eventually led to the Mic Mac Mall site.

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