HomeBridge and the IWK

The IWK Health Centre has been an invaluable community partner for HomeBridge for many years now, providing us with clinical support for both our employees and the young people served in our programs.

Since 2014 Clinical Social Worker, Jeff Thoms, MSW, RSW has been seconded to HomeBridge half time, in the role of Mental Health and Addictions Counselor.  We have benefited from his expertise in the area of substance misuse, specifically harm management approaches, by working directly with the young people we serve and through his work with the youth care teams.  In the fall of 2022, Jeff accepted a new role at the IWK where he will be leading a project for 18 months. 

We are happy to announce that Jeff will continue to be a support to HomeBridge in the addictions role for the next few months.  We are also happy to share that IWK Social Worker, Johneen Kelly, MSW, RSW will also be joining us as part of this partnership. Johneen brings with her an extensive background working directly with vulnerable youth and within areas of case management. Johneen and Jeff will be working together in a half-time capacity in the HomeBridge Community to advance three main goals:

1. Capacity building within the HomeBridge Community & IWK’s flexibility and accountability to meeting the needs of youth-in-care

2. Resource allocation of IWK services for youth within the HomeBridge Community

3. Clinical support and consultation around intervention planning and understanding of complex and presenting behaviours.

We are very excited about this enhancement to our partnership with the IWK and our ability to improve our services to the young people who live in the HomeBridge Community.