Grant: Catalyst Grant: Standards for Children and Youth Mental Health Services

Specialist care in Alberta for complex mental health disorders occurs in the two largest cities, with community mental health clinics offering general mental health services. Since 2019, a partnership between the Tourette OCD Alberta Network (TOAN) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) has allowed the integration of an accredited educational program for AHS community mental health clinicians on best practices for the management of Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), improving access to these specialized treatments provincewide. Research Questions: What standards exist for the assessment and treatment of children and youth with anxiety disorders, depression, OCD and TS? How do Alberta community-based mental health clinicians interpret and apply these standards of care? What are the main barriers and facilitators for implementing standards for mental health care? How can we integrate standards for evidence-based mental health services into practice in community clinics province-wide and monitor its impact? Research Plan: We will perform rapid reviews on existing standards for assessment, treatment and service delivery for children and youth with anxiety, depression, OCD and TS. We will perform a mixed-methods study to explore (1) How AHS community-based mental health clinicians interpret and apply existing standards of care, and (2) What are the main barriers and facilitators in implementing evidence-based standards for mental health services? We will create a clinical dashboard to monitor and track health outcomes of children and youth seen in AHS community mental health clinics provincewide with a diagnosis of anxiety, depression, OCD or TS. We will prepare an executive summary of findings for AHS, TOAN and Frayme. Significance: This foundational research knowledge will allow on-going work to improve the standard of care received by children across Alberta and nationally in Canada, including rural and remote communities.