Marymound breaks ground on 10-bed youth treatment centre

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This article was published 21/03/2025 (200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Marymound campus in West Kildonan is getting a residential, culturally appropriate treatment centre for youth.

An official groundbreaking for the Prairie Tides Community Healing centre took place Friday. The 10-bed facility will help youth struggling with mental health challenges, substance abuse, trauma and other complex needs.

Currently, most Manitoba youth are sent out of province to receive live-in services and treatment.

“That can be incredibly hard for families with all the travel and separation,” said Marymound executive director Nancy Parker. “This project has been a huge unmet need for Manitoba.”

The $4.5-million facility is in addition to three other buildings that house the Marymound School and various programs.

The lodge will include a cultural round room and a family room for parents to stay in while their child is in treatment to provide a whole-of-family approach, Parker said.

The only other treatment facility in the province is the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre in Winnipeg, but the centre’s care is specific to youth struggling with disorders such as schizophrenia.

Marymound intended to renovate Leacock House at 442 Scotia St., which was built in 1878 and operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd until 2014, but the building presented safety hazards for suicidal teens and was difficult to retrofit due to its heritage status.

In February 2023, council voted to keep the heritage protection in place after Marymound asked the city to remove the listing so the property could be torn down to make room for the treatment centre.

“Despite that the (board of directors) never wavered and we have this to look forward to now,” Parker said. “It’s come up repeatedly in so many reports … and we just continued exploring that path.”

A 2024 report from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth says barriers to youth treatment include long wait lists, a lack of culturally appropriate services, geographic challenges and stigma in both health-care and education settings.

A group of youth was polled for the report. Forty-one per cent of respondents said they had experienced trauma in childhood which contributed to their substance use.

“We need to address that,” Parker said.

The facility will use a combination of western and traditional healing techniques, including the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics model, which is designed to help clinical teams identify neurodevelopmental injuries in youth and prescribe therapeutic, educational and enrichment activities to address a patient’s needs.

Prairie Tides will be the second site in Canada to use experimental treatment. The assessment costs $100 for 10 hours of clinical time and residential treatment can take from six to 12 months.

“We’re really going to be looking at a youth’s functioning,” Parker said.

Fundraising for the project is ongoing, with $2.5 million raised to date. The organization continues to look for donors, Parker said.

The facility is expected to open in 2026.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca