Grant: Team Grant: Community-Based Primary Healthcare - IHDCYH

A team of researchers from Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), University of New Brunswick (UNB), University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) and Saint Mary's University (SMU) in collaboration with a wide-range of government and NGOs propose to conduct research on children and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Eating Disorders, Conduct Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression. These conditions, like other mental health disorders affecting children, involve a myriad of service providers and from health, education and in more serious cases justice and social services. Our approach to studying each of these conditions is to explore them through multiple lenses in each Atlantic Province to identify crucial gaps in service delivery across the health, education and other public agencies that interact with children and youth. If funded, we will use both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine access to services and health improvement as well as leading edge Operations Research techniques. Our intention is to examine how each of these conditions is managed in all four Atlantic Provinces, allowing for inter-jurisdictional comparison. The compiled evidence will be used to recommend ways in which care can be better coordinated to improve health, educational and social outcomes. Research Questions: 1) What health services are these patient populations currently accessing? 2) What services are they accessing through other agencies (education, social work, private sector providers)? 3) What are the significant barriers/facilitators to accessing these services? 4) What services are effective/ ineffective and why? 5) In what ways can services for children with mental health conditions be better coordinated to improve outcomes and increase efficiencies? We will identify key service gaps and best practices across the region and through an integrated Knowledge Translation strategy, share the findings with the wider stakeholder community.