THUNDER BAY — After nearly four decades of service, St. Joseph's Care Group is closing its Behavioural Sciences Centre at the end of October.
"The decision to close BSC is not one that we arrived at easily. It was a very difficult decision," said Adam Shaen, vice-president/people and mission at SJCG.
The behavioural sciences centre, located at 300 N. Lillie St., offers counselling through clients' employee and family assistance plans, and also provides physical/medical/psychological health assessments.
According to information posted online, its core counsellors have a minimum of a master's level education in the fields of clinical psychology, social work and/or psychotherapy, and treat a wide range of mental health challenges faced by adults and adolescents.
The BSC was established in 1987 as a profit centre for SJCG, but Shaen said market conditions have changed.
"The landscape has really shifted, and the environment saturated over the years . . . It's becoming increasingly challenging to run a sustainable operation," he said in an interview Wednesday.
"There are more providers in the space from when we started. Many years ago, it was a novel service, and now, with more providers, comes increased competition, always with our clients at the centre of what we do, wanting to provide a good service. It's also important that we're able to provide a sustainable operation."
Shaen said SJCG is working closely with its clients and is giving enough notice to allow for a successful transition to alternative services.
"There are other providers, both on the employee and family assistance plan side as well as on the medical and health assessment side," at the local, provincial and national levels, he said.
"It is our hope that every client we have worked with is able to successfully transition to a new provider."
The Behavioural Science Centre is staffed by about 10 employees of St. Joseph's Care Group, but also works with a number of contractors.
Shaen said SJCG is supporting the staff through the transition and that options have been laid out with the hope they can be retained as employees.
