CIHR Team in Access to Children's Mental Health Services

Children with mental health problems frequently do not receive timely specialist care. It is not unusual for families to wait 6 months to a year for assessment and intervention. The consequences of the lack of timely service include deterioration of child and family functioning, discouragement of seeking help and loss of motivation to change. Two research groups, headed by Dr. McGrath in Nova Scotia and Dr. Cunningham in Ontario, each world leaders in child health research, will join forces with provincial mental health services and children¿s mental health centres to form an interdisciplinary team that will develop and evaluate a seamless system of interim intervention for child mental health problems. To ensure the system is appropriate and that rapid dissemination and acceptance of the research will occur, practitioners, health care decision makers and researchers have partnered from the onset of the research program. In this 5 phase program of research, we will examine the policy barriers, patient preferences and develop, evaluate and disseminate our innovative approach to management of child mental health waiting lists. If effective, this strategy will result in many more children receiving evidence-based assessment and treatment in a timely and cost-effective way.