Intensive Early Years Program

Program Description

The Intensive Early Years Program provides comprehensive support for infants and young children (birth to 6 years) and their families who are experiencing complex and/or significant social, emotional, behavioural, and developmental challenges.

This service is intended for young children whose difficulties significantly impair functioning across multiple domains (e.g., home, childcare/early learning settings, and community). Services are family-centred, strengths-based, and attachment-informed, recognizing the critical role of early relationships and caregiver capacity in supporting healthy development.

Intervention may include intensive therapeutic support, parent-child focused interventions, caregiver coaching, and coordinated service planning. The focus is on stabilization, strengthening caregiver-child relationships, and improving developmental and mental health outcomes.

Program Goals

• To provide timely access to intensive, developmentally appropriate mental health services for young children and their families with complex and high-level needs;
• To support early identification and comprehensive assessment of social, emotional, behavioural, and developmental concerns;
• To deliver coordinated, evidence-informed interventions that are proportionate to the severity and complexity of needs;
• To strengthen caregiver capacity through coaching, education, and active involvement in all aspects of service planning and intervention;
• To improve caregiver-child relationships as a foundation for healthy emotional and social development;
• To reduce the impact of significant emotional, behavioural, and developmental challenges and promote stabilization; and
• To improve functioning across key early childhood environments, including home, childcare/early learning settings, and community.

Eligibility Criteria

The Intensive Early Years Program is available to infants and children from birth up to 6 years of age, and their parents/caregivers, who:

• Are experiencing significant to severe, and/or complex social, emotional, behavioural, or developmental challenges; and
• Require more frequent, sustained, and family-focused intervention to support stabilization, developmental progress, and improved functioning.

Referral and Intake Process

• Accessing our services begins at Central Intake. To facilitate the intake process, we recommend that you complete the online self-referral form, available here.
• If you prefer to complete the self-referral over the telephone, please call us at 1-877-539-0463, and our team will support you.
• Once a referral is received, our team will contact you to schedule an intake appointment, where we will get to know your strengths, needs, and concerns, and complete a standardized screening tool to better understand the level of support required; this process helps determine whether this service is the best fit or if an alternate service may better meet your or your child’s unique needs.