Grant: Operating Grant: SickKids-CIHR-IHDCYH New Investigator Grants

Establishing a population health approch to improving the mental health of children and youth: Co-development and evaluation of the usability of a prototype Child and Youth Mental Health Information System

<html> <head> </head> <body> <span align="start" style="letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none"><font color="rgb(0, 0, 0)" face="Times New Roman" size="medium">GOAL: To co-develop and evaluate usability of a Child and Youth Mental Health Information (CYMHI) system by youth, families, and service providers part of our goal to establish a population health approach to improving the mental health of children/youth. BACKGROUND: Population health approaches use non-clinical activities to improve mental health outcomes among groups who share geography, sociodemographic characteristics, or service use. This type of approach enables the tracking of mental health need, its change over time, geographic distribution and socioeconomic determinants; and helps to quantify, plan and evaluate services in response to population shifts in need. AIMS: A population health approach to improving child/youth mental health does not currently exist in Ontario or Canada due to the lack of practical, scientifically sound measurement tools to monitor mental health need; and systematic approaches to collecting and using data to plan and evaluate the service response. To overcome these impediments, we will: 1) co-develop a prototype CYMHI system; and 2) evaluate the usability of this prototype by youth, families, and service providers in service organizations in Hamilton, Ontario. METHODS: To address Aim 1, co-development methods will be used to determine system design specifications. To address Aim 2, summative evaluation using mixed methods will be used including quantitative survey analysis, qualitative classical content analysis, and software metric-based analysis. OUTCOMES: Outputs will be a prototype CYMHI system and much needed evidence about the feasibility of implementing and using this type of system to support a population health approach to improving child/youth mental health. The evidence generated will be useful to service providers, system planners, policymakers and researchers in Ontario and Canada. Ultimately, this research will create and increase the ability of child/youth mental health services to meet population needs, improving the lives of children, youth and their families.</font></span> </body> </html>