Across Canada, attendance problems (SAPs) have been a prevalent issue for decades, significantly interacting with mental health issues and substance use among children and youth. In order to develop a deeper understanding to inform more effective interventions, we developed a partnership team of over 20 researchers, mental health and addictions agencies, and school boards focused on SAPs.

Our research-community partnership team came together with the goal of doing things differently. Our partners have worked for decades, often in silos, to make substantial changes in school attendance problems, with limited success. Alongside clinicians, youth, and families, we are engaged in iterative, creative, and responsive research that cycles regularly with practice-based insight to better inform local efforts. We believe that we are stronger together and that the lived experience, perspectives, and expertise of all of our partners are necessary to really understand complex school attendance problems and be able to intervene in ways that make a difference.

Our goal in sharing our work at the CMHO conference is to connect with others engaged in working with children, youth, families, and schools and to share ideas about ways of better understanding and intervening when school attendance problems arise. We hope to engage participants in exploring: 1) the ways we understand school attendance problems, 2) the role of partnerships in addressing school these, and 3) early research findings that can inform practice.

This presentation aims to increase skills and capacity for Social Workers and assessment practitioners to be better positioned to identify when the emotional, and behavioural difficulties that we are seeing in the people we support may be more to do with developmental trauma and prenatal exposures and not always related to parenting challenges, and adverse childhood experiences.  What we may be seeing is in fact, the impact of prenatal exposures. Participants will be better able to offer more comprehensive screening, identification, and support services while simultaneously targeting prevention. This presentation will explore the integral role of Social Workers and front-line practitioners for identification, direct support and referrals and how multi-disciplinary teams can works together to provide support for these ‘whole family’ conditions.

School absenteeism is an interdisciplinary problem. This poster displays the range of ways that absenteeism is studied in research and areas of agreement across different research and professional disciplines.

Presenter: Nilufar Mokhtarian, University of Ottawa

Adapt and validate the psychometric properties of the UNICEF/CFM measure in a nationally representative population sample of children (5-17 years) in Canada. Specifically, latent structure, internal reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity.

Presenter: Emma Nolan, McMaster University / Offord Centre for Child Studies

This project aims to provide a solution to address the youth mental health crisis, specifically in South Georgian Bay, by consolidating available local services into an accessible resource guide.

Presenters: Michelle Hunter, MSc BSc, and Angela Luan, Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP)

Using a competency-based approach to consultation, psychologists at Kinark are advancing accessibility, equity, and quality of care for children and families. Approaches to consultation are discussed with examples.

Presenter: Brittany Burek, Kinark Child and Family Services

The Family Navigation Project, a free GTA-based navigation service, will present the impact of their recent youth engagement strategy on clients’ experiences navigating the mental health and addictions system.

Presenter: Deewa Anwarzi, Family Navigation Project, Sunnybrook

The Triple P Online programs can be part of a wider Triple P system of programs or function as a standalone solution to reduce wait lists for services. The programs are suited to a range of child development stages (infant, school-age, teen, young parents) and, in particular, to support parents with children struggling with anxiety. Triple P programs have been developed through 40 years of research to help parents provide a positive, safe, and engaging environment for children, and to understand more about the importance of responsive learning environments, how to use assertive, non-punitive, consistent discipline to guide children, to look after then own needs, to have realistic expectations of children and themselves, and to have confidence in their ability to parent.

Presenter: Gail Hamelin, Triple P Canada

We will explore the pressing challenges and promising opportunities in youth mental health and substance use, with a focus on the impact of COVID-19 and the needs of equity-deserving populations. Together, we will delve into a comprehensive examination of strategies and initiatives to create a brighter future for our young people.

Presenters: Joanna Anderson, Dr. Dionne Duncan, and Teresa Bansen, Bellwood Health Services, EHN Canada

We will share information on research and steps that are being undertaken to link caregivers, educators, and professionals in the community to evidence-based information on supporting and managing a range of childhood anxiety difficulties. By sharing feedback on programming and pathways of care that have been helpful in promoting accessible anxiety support (e.g., anxiety storybooks; workshops for parents and caregivers; intentional planning and sharing with schools), we hope the presentation will promote dialogue and informed conversations around practical ways to promote a personalized stepped-care approach to anxiety management and care.

Presenters: Dr. Colin King and Amy Rzezniczek, Western University

This presentation will introduce the CARIBOU by CAMH integrated care pathway (ICP), developed by the Cundill Centre, for adolescents (13-18 years old) with depression. It is a pathway that includes 7 core components: assessment, psychoeducation, psychotherapy, medication, caregiver support, team reviews, and graduation. A pilot trial was completed, and it is now the standard of care at CAMH.

Presenters: Dr. Darren Courtney, Dr. Bahar Amani, Dr. Andrea Greenblatt, and Gray Liddell, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Thematic analysis results of two co-design events to collaboratively build a service provider data dashboard and a youth- and family-facing summary report of responses to an intake assessment questionnaire.

Presenter: Laura Duncan, Offord Centre for Child Studies

A Learning Health System (LHS) project has the capacity to inform a significant change to the healthcare of children and their families across Canada, particularly those with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Presenters: Dr. Elyse Rosa and Alessia Greco, McMaster University

This presentation will describe a specialized treatment classroom program that was created through a collaborative effort between a school board and hospital child and youth mental health staff out of a need to engage families of children and youth with complex needs who were not in the classroom and not coming to mental health appointments. This program was developed for a population of youth and their families who need multiple services but have many barriers to engaging in treatment and have experiences of not feeling heard, not getting what they need, and being expected to be their own case managers.

The main goal of this program is to make connections with the youth and families at their level. This allows for the creation of a safe space through which they can trust and connect with each other and the staff. The second goal is to make sure everyone involved is working together as a team with youth and families in order to help them get the mental health supports they need and continue to focus on the youth’s academic and life goals. Conference attendees will be provided with a detailed description of the process of creation of the program. They will read perspectives from the school board and hospital staff about the collaborative process as well as from a parent whose child attended the program.

Presenters: Dr. Jennifer Davidson-Harden, Dr. Sarosh Khalid-Khan, and Patricia Marchand, Kingston Health Sciences Centre, and Laura Conboy, Limestone District School Board

A broad-scope evaluation of a variety of virtual care services offered to children in Ontario with strong participation from parents/caregivers, service providers, and organizations across the province.

Presenter: Dr. Elyse Rosa, McMaster University

This presentation introduces the Preventative Online Mental Health Program for Youth (POMHPY), a community-based initiative aimed at improving resilience, coping skills, and overall well-being in youth ages 12 to 25 living in Ontario, Canada. A comprehensive overview of POMHPY will be provided, emphasizing its evidence-based and co-development approach, youth-centred design, and commitment to principles of equity, diversity, and inclusivity. Participants will gain insights into the program’s unique features, including its user-friendly online platform and peer-facilitated interactive sessions. 

Two-Eyed Seeing is an integrative science approach that refers to “learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing and to using both of these eyes together.” (Bartlett, Marshall, & Marshall, 2012, p. 335). Our clinical researchers recognized the need for this approach due to the low percentage of self-identified Indigenous patients (2%) accessing specialized outpatient pediatric chronic pain care in Ontario. Indigenous youth have a higher prevalence of chronic pain, painful medical conditions, disease-related pain, and dental pain when compared to non-Indigenous youth. They are more likely not to be treated for their pain and are likely to experience barriers to pain management services (Latimer et al., 2012; Turk & Okifuji, 2002), hence, exacerbating their mental health and increasing risks for having anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders.

The World Health Organization has declared that pain management is a basic human right, yet Indigenous youth and families needlessly suffer from insufficiently treated pediatric chronic pain. As such, the clinical researchers embarked on developing a pediatric chronic pain treatment pathway for Indigenous youth. In this presentation, Two-Eyed Seeing was employed to: 1) understand Indigenous adolescent and parent experiences of chronic pain and accessing mental health care; 2) exemplify using a community-centred biopsychosocial-spiritual approach to chronic pain assessment with Indigenous adolescents; and 3) present the development and feasibility of a cognitive behavioural program for Indigenous adolescents with chronic pain.

Presenter: Dr. Maisha Syeda, C.Psych., Western University

This poster depicts a novel Walk-in Clinic intervention for youth with an autism spectrum disorder. A 5-step model is presented that therapeutically addresses emotional self-regulation incorporating electronic devices into psychotherapy.

Presenter: Everett McGuinty, MA, RP, Maltby Centre, Kingston, Ontario

This presentation focuses on young people’s fears and anxieties around the climate crisis, as well as various coping strategies and recommendations for best practices and actionable items.

Presenter: Nivatha Moothathamby, University of Toronto

Our findings suggest there are distinct socio-demographic and clinical characteristics associated with future high intensity physician-based service use among children and youth in Ontario, Canada.

Presenter: Jordan Edwards, McMaster University

This curriculum, merging Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), equips individuals with ASD to connect with their values, fostering personal growth, self-awareness, and enhanced quality of life.

Presenter: Jessica White, BCBA, Surrey Place

Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO) has partnered with PreVenture and School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON) to support the implementation of PreVenture in school boards across Ontario. PreVenture is an evidence-based prevention program that uses personality-targeted interventions to promote mental health and delay substance use among youth. The program is supported by over 20 years of research and is a part of multiple global research projects.

We will present the collaborative partnership and model used to support the implementation of PreVenture in schools. The discussion will include Information about the implementation resources, supports, and lessons learned needed to bolster the successful implementation of evidence-based programming in schools. Participants will learn ways to apply a collaborative implementation approach to their own work in child and youth mental health.

Presenter: Leshawn Benedict,MPH, MSc, PMP, Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario Provincial Office

The pandemic magnified challenges already existing in mental health care. Introducing Single-Session Therapy successfully allowed for reduced wait times and immediate care for youth and families in need.

Presenter: Susan Lambert, Boomerang Health (powered by Sickkids)

Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT) is not a treatment modality but instead is a way of regularly integrating feedback into regular therapy conversations to assess therapy efficacy, client satisfaction, and goal alignment. Research indicates that clients of any age who feel that their therapists are closely attuned to their needs report better success, reduced troubling symptoms, and higher levels of well-being even after the conclusion of therapy. Most existing FIT methods are designed for use with developmentally typical adults; however, I propose that FIT can be modified for use with children and youth of any age and developmental ability.

My presentation will include concrete phrases and strategies for therapists, doctors, psychologists, teachers, and caregivers to illicit quantitative feedback from children or families of any age and developmental ability. These quantitative measures can be used to track progress, highlight areas of difficulty, and offer a conversation around goal alignment. My approaches integrate well with practitioners already familiar with FIT, practitioners who use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), programs such as Superflex or the Zones of Regulation, or practitioners or caregivers who use no specific therapy approach. I will also consider possible limitations to working with children and youth, such as challenging settings, the child or family’s experience of trauma, language and cultural barriers, and limited session length.

Presenter: Emily Hansen, MyLife Counselling

 Emily Hansen

Quality eating disorder care for children, youth, and families has been historically difficult to access locally in the Kenora and Rainy River Districts of Ontario. Specialized client services, as well as clinician training and consultation, have been supported by partnerships outside of the region. During the pandemic, disordered eating and eating disorder concerns significantly increased both locally and provincially. FIREFLY recognized the need to integrate a Registered Dietitian (RD) within its team to offer specialized eating disorder services closer to home.

The dietician works on both the Child and Youth Developmental Services team as well as the Child and Youth Mental Health team to provide a continuum of specialized care, from complex feeding and swallowing to eating disorder services. Previous gaps in service are filled as disorders that typically require both the rehabilitation and mental health fields can be served in an integrated manner. We want to share with others in the sector how we established the need for RD services integrated within the Child and Youth Mental Health team and progressively integrated RD services within mental health through a stepped care model. We plan to discuss successes, gaps addressed, and ongoing needs related to the position, as well as eating disorder services within the agency.

Presenters: Kate Ronnebeck (she/her) and Zoé Campbell (elle/she/her), FIREFLY

Paediatric medicine, particularly in Northwestern Ontario, is challenged by limited access based on fewer paediatricians per capita than other geographic areas and consequently, prolonged wait lists, particularly in the areas of behavioural and mental health. A social pediatrics model asks interdisciplinary care partners to be innovative in their approach to care delivery in order to provide easier access for children who are marginalized in terms of access to care in traditional health care delivery systems based on their socioeconomic determinants of health. The Lakehead Public Schools Collaborative Pediatric Clinic (LPSCPC) was conceived out of an understanding that for paediatrics to reach the most vulnerable children in a more urgent manner, existing referral systems are inadequate because they place unnecessary burdens on parents to navigate the health care system and facilitate communication between health care and education. Students who are struggling in school need a collaborative approach to recognize and address their needs.

Presenter: Michelle Probizanski

Children’s mental health services have been encouraged to undergo a transformation and expansion in the last few years to keep up with the increased demand and new challenges in the post-COVID digitalized era.  The Stop Now And Plan (SNAP) early intervention model for children displaying disruptive behaviour was no exception. SNAP programs, which have provided evidence-based services for children and their caregivers across Ontario and North America for over 37 years, rose to the challenge of digitalizing aspects of treatment to extend the learnings and therapeutic benefits of the in-person program to the home and community.

This presentation will share how we leveraged technology to enhance and extend the established in-person intervention model. SNAP’s multifaceted programs run concurrent in-person groups with children and caregivers. An accompanying app for children and one for their caregivers provides opportunities to practice and solidify the skills that were introduced to them in the weekly groups, at home, and in school. Once children “graduate” from the SNAP under 12 program and turn 13 years old, a Youth app becomes available for continued support and skill acquisition outside the treatment centre.

 In addition to the core SNAP clinical intervention programs, SNAP for Schools is a universal prevention program, which is delivered by trained facilitators/teachers in the classroom. A SNAP for Schools – parenting app has been developed to engage caregivers in supporting their child’s skill acquisition during the program. Involving the caregivers provides the children with greater opportunities to generalize those skills in various settings.

Children and youth in mental health settings are particularly vulnerable to illiteracy due to exposure to psychosocial adversity, attentional deficits, and missed instructional time. Furthermore, marginalized students facing structural inequality (i.e., Black and racialized students, First Nations, Métis and Inuit students, multilingual students, and students from low-income backgrounds) experience double jeopardy in making the leap to literacy. Illiterate children and youth are vulnerable to a trajectory of compounding challenges, including emotional and behavioral dysregulation, academic underachievement, and exclusion from school and, by extension, the social and economic mainstream (Snow, 2019).

The York Hills Literacy Champions Program was developed to respond to these needs in one of Ontario’s largest day treatment programs. Uniquely positioning literacy as a mental health intervention, the program’s objectives are: i) early identification of literacy needs to prevent mental health sequelae, ii) developing a community of practice for teachers, child and youth workers, and speech-language pathologists around the science of reading, and iii) providing structured, systematic instruction based on the science of reading. This presentation will review the literature on language, literacy, and mental health and showcase program development in the pilot years of the Literacy Champions Program.

Presenter: Vibhuti Jethava, York Hills Centre for Children, Youth, and Families

Learn how LOFT-TAY Campus Mental Health (CMH) program supports better pathways and accessible services for post-secondary students. Learn about supporting well-being and educational success by engaging meaningfully with the youth.

Presenter: Ashell Campbell, LOFT Community Services- Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Program

Over the past 4 years, Pathstone Mental Health has expanded its care mechanism to reach into every corner of the Niagara Community. We have strategically opened ten in-person mental health walk-in clinics in 9 municipalities offering immediate mental health support to children, youth, and their families without an appointment, health card, or cost. Our newest location, the Pen Centre shopping centre has amplified the program and, to date, is the most accessed clinic. Imagine if every shopping centre hosted a free mental health clinic. We are going to where the kids are, and we are encouraging our like-minded partners to consider a similar approach.

Presenters: Erin Clayton, Tara Kelly, and Kim Rossi, Pathstone Mental Health

In 2022, Banyan’s multi-disciplinary team set out to improve processes for assessing the risk of suicide, self-harm, and substance withdrawal upon admission to our Youth Justice programs. The objectives of this quality project were to develop and implement a standardized tool for conducting risk assessments and to formalize procedures to care for youth in ways designed to mitigate each type and level of assessed risk. The overarching goals were to provide consistent, timely, and quality care to at-risk youth, to decrease the need for hospital assessment and treatment, and to decrease youth agitation and risky behaviours within program settings. We will present the design of our risk assessment tool and related procedures and discuss our learnings in implementing them with youth at Banyan. 

Presenters: Fran Doodeman and Amber Adams, Banyan Community Services

Our presentation will highlight the development and delivery of an experiential youth mental health initiative, My Best Self Program, that has been offered in the Specialized Education Program at Sudbury Secondary School. We will highlight the variety of mental health and wellness activities and curricula that have been offered to the students in the past 2 years.

Presenters: Christine McInnes and Anastastia Rioux, Rainbow District School Board

Our research examines the experiences of grieving children who attended Camp Erin, an annual, overnight, weekend bereavement program for youth aged 6 to 17. We will discuss the prevalence, cost, and impacts of grief on children, youth, and families, and the impacts of camp: enhancing communication, emotional expression, and coping strategies in the context of death and grief, as well as decreasing feelings of isolation by creating community through shared experiences.

A group of bereaved youth engaged as “Mentors with Lived Experience” have crucially contributed throughout the design and conduct of our research. In this presentation, a panel of youth mentors will share their lived experiences as campers and later as camp volunteers and research advisors, emphasizing the sense of community they experience and the opportunity to “give back” to other grieving youth. Thus, this presentation will examine the quality of camp in terms of its social impacts on young people and their families, as well as the rich opportunities to maximize impacts and quality by engaging youth in mixed-methods research and evaluation.

Presenters: Jodi Pereira, Canadian Alliance of Children’s Grief; Ceilidh Eaton Russell, PhD, McMaster University; Melina Economou, MA, PhD Candidate, UC San Diego

Five lessons learned about recruiting and retaining Indigenous youth within e-mental health research will be presented.

Presenter: Jaidyn Charlton, Lakehead University

The remote Talk-In Clinic run by Dufferin Child and Family Services provides an innovative, accessible approach to rural mental health service delivery. This intern-run program combines enhanced clinical training opportunities with effective, barrier-free psychotherapy. By establishing solution-focused clinical support in a rural high school, we have been able to meet the needs of a previously under-supported adolescent population.

Presenter: Kaitlyn Arcuri, Dufferin Child and Family Services

This poster will review the co-design of the SibKit 2.0, an online and in-print booklet filled with interactive tools and tips for siblings of children and youth with disabilities, medical complexities, or diagnoses. 

Presenter: Victoria Rombos, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

The Youth with Complex Suicide Needs (YCSN) Protocol is a community-based protocol that provides a comprehensive and coordinated approach to care for children and youth who have been identified as being at high risk for suicide. Developed in Hamilton in 2019, this protocol includes representatives from across the child sector, including hospital/acute mental health, community mental health, adult mental health, primary care, education, police, probation, centralized access, mobile crisis, child protection, and the shelter system.

The YCSN protocol is based on the belief that timely and collaborative communication between agencies reduces risk and improves access to care. Members come together as often as weekly to make decisions in the moment to target risk factors for suicide, increase protective factors, and remove barriers. Meetings are targeted and action-oriented, and documentation is standardized. The protocol provides a format for ensuring wraparound services for these youth and their families. Feedback has been universally positive, with members describing a sense of shared responsibility for managing these very complex youth. There is increased collegiality and trust across agencies, which helps us to stretch our usual mandates, when needed, to provide the best care possible. Based on the success of this protocol in the Hamilton area, it has recently been expanded to other communities in the region.

Presenters: Jennifer McTaggart, Nicole Karki-Niejadlik, and Fiona Koopal, McMaster Children’s Hospital

The Thorncliffe Park Youth Hub is a multi-partner initiative that facilitates accessible health and social services for youth in a high-needs community. This poster examines the Hub’s design, collaborative framework, and key features.

Presenters: Adina Hauser and Nicole Wilson, Michael Garron Hospital, and Sandra Cardillo, The Neighbourhood Organization

A collaborative and innovative pilot project between Garden River Wellness Centre and Algoma Family Services has been developed in the hope of bridging Indigenous perspectives with Western approaches to ASD.

Presenters: Dr. Stephanie Hayes and Carly Bumbacco, M.A., Algoma Family Services

To better understand access to and transition through the youth MHA system, this study uses Delphi methodology to gather expert perspectives on the complexity of youth MHA navigation.

Presenter: Anthony Levitt, Family Navigation Project

Quest, the Knowledge Institute’s quality improvement (QI) program, is designed to support organizations in tackling issues impacting services for children, young people, and families and to enhance QI culture by building QI capacity across the CYMHA sector. Quest’s key program components include coaching with our QI team, a QI maturity assessment (measuring the progression of QI culture among the participating organizations), foundational and system-wide training to enhance QI knowledge, and a community of practice focused on quality. Together, these advance the QI agenda and mobilize lessons learned.

Now in its third year, Quest has supported more than 20 organizational improvement initiatives, leading to the implementation of significant changes to client care across the province. Evaluation findings show these improvements have led to a better client experience, faster access, reduced wait times, integrated services, and streamlined care pathways. Not only can these changes spread and scale up across organizations, but they help to sustain QI capacity within the CYMHA sector.

Presenter: TBC

This presentation will outline the why, the what, and the how of implementing a clinical supervision framework in an Ontario-based child and youth mental health lead agency. The framework was implemented during a time of substantial staff turnover, leadership changes, and parallel efforts to advance a learning, caring, and purpose-driven organizational culture. In the new clinical supervision framework, supervisors do not have a direct reporting relationship with the staff’s clinical managers to help untangle clinical and administrative supervision. This framework is intended to facilitate a space wherein staff are able to express vulnerability and more effectively grow and develop their skills. While traditional supervision research and practice has focused on social work, psychology, nursing, and psychotherapy, this framework was extended to include child and youth workers. The rationale (e.g., previous lack of opportunity for focused clinical supervision) and intended outcomes (e.g., improved staff retention, increased skill) of the framework will be discussed.

The implementation of the framework involved three key elements; change management, mobilizing data, and supervisor-manager collaboration. Presenters will review the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned throughout the implementation process; participants will be introduced to data collection and reporting practices that bring actionable information to the fingertips of clinical management teams; and through the use of real staff cases, a manager and supervisor pair will illustrate the model in action. The presentation is geared towards supervisors, managers, and directors of child and youth mental health agencies.

Description of a research study that used co-design and collaborative approaches to understand youth’s mental health and addiction experiences since COVID-19 and develop a tool to support their help-seeking journey.

Presenter: Ashley Radomski, Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addiction, CHEO Research Institute