Grant: Patient-Oriented Research Collaboration Grants - New/Early Career Investigators

Twenty percent of Canadians will experience a mental illness or issue in any year. New technology called mental health patient portals, has been developed to support these Canadians and their families in taking more control over their own mental health and care through access to their health records and other supportive functions like completing online self-assessments. To date, there has been limited research into the value that these portals may provide to people within mental health contexts which has made it challenging for mental health organizations to justify the expense of a portal or to implement certain features and functions that may be meaningful to their patients. Therefore, this study will be conducted to identify what value mental health patient portals may offer to patients and their family members. This study will be conducted using a patient and family-oriented research approach,engaging these important representatives in all stages of the research process.