Supporting Clinician Behaviour Change to lead to Mental Health System Transformation

Improving mental health services for youth and families is a priority in many countries, including Canada. The Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) is a model for child and adolescent mental health services that helps to guide the development of a better system of care. CAPA is different from traditional models in which clinicians are seen as experts and lead the planning of a treatment path for a client to follow. CAPA is youth and family focused. It engages youth and families at the right time, with the right service, at the right level of care necessary to meet their mental health needs and goals. Youth and families share in decision making and work together with clinicians to understand and address problems, and to develop skills in advocating for their needs. Progress toward goals is measured along the way to make sure things that are important to youth and families are on track and if they're not, to support moving forward together in a way that makes sense. The CAPA model requires clinicians to change the way they think about and deliver care. We have learned, with time and with mistakes, that we need to support clinicians during this time of major changes in the health system. We are hosting a conference to bring together experts in youth mental health and CAPA (clinicians, clients and families, researchers, health system decision makers) to learn about the key components of the CAPA model, to identify gaps in what we know about the model, and to develop ways to support clinician behaviour change to change the way we organize and deliver mental health services. We aim to build upon the conference to support our working together in research and education going forward, with a focus on making sure we are doing it right and making a difference for youth and families in ways that are important to them.