Grant: Project Grant

One in five Canadians experiences a mental illness in their lifetime. In addition to the detrimental personal costs, mental illness results in an economic burden of $50 billion due to health costs and lost employment opportunities (Smetanin et al., 2011). To ensure Canadians are directed to appropriate treatment, it is critical that they receive a thorough assessment that accurately identifies their mental problems (or conditions). Current available interview tools are costly and too time consuming to administer. To overcome these significant limitations, we developed the Diagnostic Assessment Research Tool (DART; McCabe et al., 2017). The DART is a diagnostic interview to be used by clinicians, learners and researchers to assist with accurately identifying mental disorders in any setting. The goal of this study is to test if diagnoses that are determined when a clinician uses the DART are accurate and reliable. The DART was developed to offer interviewers with a diagnostic tool that is free to use, easy to administer, and designed to minimize patient burden and inconvenience. Given the limitations of existing diagnostic tools, a new diagnostic tool that is valid and reliable will directly impact the health of Canadians suffering with mental illness by guiding them to appropriate treatment and resources and by advancing research. It will also significantly reduce costs to Canadian clinicians and researchers who currently must pay for the use of most existing diagnostic tools.