MONTREAL -- Quebec is allocating more than half a million dollars to four university hospital centres for programs to support young teenage mothers in vulnerable situations and their children.

Minister of Health and Social Services Lionel Carmant made the announcement at Sainte-Justine Hospital on Friday.

Sainte-Justine will receive the lion's share of the funding, (around $275,000) in annual recurrent funding, to carry out the MAJE project (Mothers and Young Children). The hospital has already had a clinic dedicated to follow-up with young mothers and their children for around 20 years.

"We are talking about teenage mothers who are often confronted with difficult realities, both in terms of physical and mental health, and what we want is for them to be able to develop their full potential," said Carmant. "It takes a lot of hard work to keep these young teenagers in the health-care system."

The clinic represents a one-stop-shop for gyneco-obstetrics and pediatrics services with a team of health professionals, including a clinical nurse navigator, a nutritionist and a social worker.

The goal is to improve the health of unborn babies, pregnant women and their partners, as well as the optimal development of children. Personalized follow-up begins during pregnancy and continues until the child reaches the age of two.

BECOMING A FUNCTIONAL MOTHER

Doris Ouellet, a nurse clinician who has been working with this clientele for the past 15 years explained her work.

"We do a very personalized follow-up of this clientele," she said. "Often, this very disadvantaged clientele has very good intentions, but has had very few previous role models to give their baby the best."

Ouellet explained that a large part of the process is in the accompaniment.

"It is very difficult for a teenager to project herself into the future because of her lack of experience," she said. "Often, we are going to be much more of a guide for her to be able to fulfill her duties as a mother."

Carmant also intends to use the work of this specialized clinic as a research tool to measure the impact of this approach.

He does not hide the fact that he hopes to see a domino effect on referrals to youth protection services.

"It is exactly this type of intervention that we think can help things," he said. "We've invested a lot in the DPJ, now we have to invest upstream. I'm hopeful to see if this can have an impact, even in terms of reporting these children."

The three other university hospital centres involved will each receive $100,000 in annual recurrent funding to carry out similar projects.

They are the CHU de Québec, the CHU de Sherbrooke and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 1, 2021.