Grant: Health System Impact Fellowships - Doctoral Central Canada 1-year

Despite being at higher risk of developing common mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, women are significantly more likely to experience barriers in accessing specialized mental health care when compared to men. Disorders that are sex-specific, such as perinatal mental illness, can compound access issues and barriers to receiving mental health services. The recent rise in the use of digital tools and technologies in the delivery of mental health care provides a unique opportunity to reduce barriers in accessing mental health care for women, such as the use of patient portals. The priority aims of this project are to enhance mental health service access for women with mental health challenges by improving their access and use of the patient portal at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). By increasing the access and use of the patient portal, more women may be able to access mental health care services through CAMH thereby addressing some of the significant gaps in women's mental health. Therefore, the objectives are: 1) To identify best practices for improving women's experiences accessing and using the CAMH patient portal; 2) To understand the perspectives of women with mental health challenges in accessing and using the CAMH patient portal; 3) To develop actionable recommendations for CAMH and the broader mental health community for supporting women's use and access of patient portals for mental health purposes. It is expected that many of the findings of this work will be relevant to other organizations.