Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador experience long wait times and a lack of accessibility to mental health and addiction services, often leading to worsening symptoms and the development of preventable chronic illnesses. Accessibility to and gaps in mental health services are even more pronounced in rural areas of the province. Ensuring timely and effective treatment may be possible by regularly providing data-informed, client-centered care through a digital platform; this is what I intend to study. This study adds to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's implementation of an online stepped-care program through GreenSpace Mental Health. Stepped care meets clients where they are on their recovery journey and considers their readiness for change when developing and altering treatment plans. Using clinical measurements to direct treatment is known as measurement-based care (MBC). In tandem with traditional practice, MBC may further improve a client's recovery rate. My study aims to assess client outcomes while using MBC on a digitized stepped-care platform. Data will be collected by surveying and interviewing clients referred to GreenSpace by their provider. This study will report changes in client-practitioner relationships, client recovery rates, and their wellbeing. Feedback from client interviews will also be used to improve the accessibility of the GreenSpace MBC platform. Providing online services is essential in Newfoundland and Labrador and will increase access to and the quality of mental health and addiction services in the province. The success of this pilot project may lead to its uptake and study in other regions of Canada.