Grant: Catalyst Grant: Patient-Oriented Research

Part of the recent culture shift in health care is towards a framework that is built on person centered care, inclusive of patients and families. This shift is leading to a better understanding of the health benefits of meaningful engagement with caregivers, who carry complex and multifaceted roles and responsibilities. Organizations and service providers are striving to meet best practices that are inclusive of family caregivers through partnering, offering opportunities for collaboration and involvement in policy and program planning. However, for many reasons, which are poorly understood, the organizations in the area of mental health and addictions are struggling to meet the requirements for meaningful volunteer caregiver participation. There is much to learn about how to ensure that future partnerships between families and mental health care provider organizations are meaningful and ultimately improve the health of patients struggling with mental health and addiction. As an early adopter in partnering with family caregivers, service providers in Ottawa, including The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center (The Royal), have already developed a strong working relationship with family advisors in the area of mental health and substance use. Building upon this foundational relationship, we have co-designed a research project that will generate a roadmap focused on best practices and lessons learned for successful recruitment, orientation, skill matching, providing appropriate supports and sustaining the interest of caregiver advisors. Our immediate goal is to assess the needs of the community agencies and organizations for family caregiver participants and develop a plan how to best build the capacity to fulfill this need on an ongoing basis, with the ultimate goal to improve services and person centered care, and policy and program planning.