Collective Action and Advocacy: Coalitions and Right-Sizing Children’s Healthcare

CMHO CEO Tatum Wilson was featured in a recent episode of the SPARK: Conversations podcast with Children’s Healthcare Canada to talk about coalitions and right-sizing children’s healthcare.

In this episode, Children’s Healthcare Canada explores the collaborative efforts shaping the future of child and youth mental health care in Ontario. Tatum reflects on the work and the journey of the Children’s Health Coalition, a partnership between CMHO, Empowered Kids Ontario (EKO) and Ontario’s five children’s hospitals. This work is an example of children’s health providers coming together across settings (hospital and community) and across physical, developmental, and mental health to jointly advocate for investments and innovation in children’s health care. For child and youth mental health, this partnership work was critical in laying the foundations for system transformation in intensive treatment and the $44.6 million investment announced in January 2023, which has led to the Ontario Intensive Treatment Pathway (OITP) work.

Watch the episode or read the transcript.

About SPARK Conversations: Children’s Healthcare Canada offers this solutions-focused podcast and interview series, situated at the crossroads of children’s healthcare, system improvement, and leadership. Host Dr. Katharine Smart draws on her wide experience with the child health and broad healthcare systems to create engaging and thoughtful conversations with her guests. She chats with child health and health system leaders who tackle wicked problems and discuss ideas to inform the development of innovative and integrated health systems serving children and youth.