The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) has appointed neuropsychologist Dr Marlon Simpson as its new director of therapeutic services and psychosocial support. CPFSA CEO Laurette Adams-Thomas said Simpson\u2019s leadership and training will help coordinate and expand psychosocial care for children in state care.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren in our care will benefit from more precise assessment, evidence-based interventions and strengthened clinical oversight,\u201d Adams-Thomas said.<\/p>\n
She added that a key goal of appointing Dr Simpson as the director of therapeutic services and psychosocial support is to streamline psychological services for children and extend early support to families so fewer children require placement in state care.<\/p>\n
Simpson will oversee therapeutic interventions across the agency\u2019s programmes, including the Smiles Mobile Unit, residential therapeutic facilities, therapeutic centres and places of safety and the Living In Family Environments (LIFE) programme. He will also coordinate counselling, psychosocial, psychoeducational, psychological and psychiatric support across CPFSA regions.<\/p>\n
As a neuropsychologist, Dr Simpson can conduct in-depth assessments and diagnoses of cognitive, emotional and behavioural problems arising from neurological conditions, developmental disorders or brain injuries. He will design treatment plans to improve children\u2019s functioning.<\/p>\n
His plans include expanding services such as play and music therapy, creating specialised spaces like calm and de-escalation rooms for children with autism spectrum disorder, and promoting greater awareness of mental health challenges among families and caregivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to go beyond simply labelling children as having \u2018behavioural issues\u2019,\u201d Dr Simpson said. \u201cThe real task is to identify what underlies those behaviours \u2013 whether neurological, developmental or psychosocial factors \u2013 and then create the right spaces and interventions to meet those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CPFSA works with children who have severe behavioural challenges, suicidal tendencies, autism, ADHD, and other intellectual or neurological developmental challenges.<\/p>\n
Dr Simpson, whose master\u2019s thesis focused on a psychosocial intervention to boost resilience among adolescents in state care, will enable the CPFSA to better integrate the varied skill sets of its psychosocial teams, to deliver timely, multidisciplinary care and to expand community-centred supports that address trauma before it leads to separation.<\/p>\n
He holds a doctorate in psychology (health and neuropsychology) and has worked as senior clinical psychologist at Bellevue Hospital, clinical psychologist at the National Police College of the Caribbean, and associate clinical psychologist at CALM International and the McCam Child Care Development Centre. He has also lectured at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean and The University of the West Indies, Mona.<\/p>\n
\u2013 JIS <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) has appointed neuropsychologist Dr Marlon Simpson as its new director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-180120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}