About the Centre

The Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO, along with other leaders, is working towards an integrated system that truly meets the mental health care needs of children, youth and their parents and caregivers.

The Centre:

• Facilitates and engages in partnerships, networks and collaboration.

• Funds new research and new research partnerships through a comprehensive grants and awards program.

• Provides consulting services to encourage more organizations to conduct research and to support their use of research to improve services.

• Builds, synthesizes and mobilizes credible child and youth mental health evidence.

• Generates opportunities for knowledge exchange to promote evidence-informed practice and community mobilization.

• Supports the critical role of youth engagement through partnerships, project funding, youth specific grants and awards and youth representation on its advisory committees.

The Centre is About You

Achieving our goals depends on how we collectively meet the needs of stakeholders in the mental health of children, youth and their parents and caregivers in Ontario. Your participation is key to our success. You can:

• Join or search our directories

• Apply for a grant or award

• Download and use our resources

• Sign up for CHECKPOINT, our e-bulletin

• Provide feedback on our activities

• Find answers to frequently asked questions.

This is YOUR Centre and we invite you to participate!

The Centre's Accountability Framework

April 1, 2010 marks the first day of the Centre’s new contract with the Ministry of Child and Youth Services (MCYS). The Centre has worked in collaboration with the MCYS to refine its mandate and strategies to continue meeting the needs of service providers, and improve outcomes for children and youth. The new contract and mandate will continue to reflect the key goals of advancing the uptake of evidence-informed practices within community-based agencies, and fostering increased quality and effectiveness of child and youth mental health services. The Centre's accountability framework and strategic directions for 2010 to 2016 are currently under review.

Mission
The Centre is committed to building the capacity of the mental health care system and the evidence base that supports it.

Vision
The Centre believes that a fully integrated system meeting the mental health needs of children, youth and their parents and caregivers, in ways that are evidence-based, can be achieved.

Strategic Impact Areas
The Centre has identified three areas where it believes it can have the greatest positive impact on the child and youth mental health care system.

• Evidence-based knowledge and practice
• Capacity in training, research and evaluation
• Collaboration among stakeholders to make child and youth mental health matter across Ontario

Key Actions
The Centre has focused on seven key actions in relation to the strategic impact areas. These are:

• Building, synthesizing and mobilizing the evidence
• Designing and pilot testing a model for measuring and monitoring the incidence and prevalence of child and youth mental illness in Ontario
• Building research capacity so that stakeholders:
  1. enhance their research skills
  2. maximize their use of existing evidence
  3. contribute to the evidence through program evaluation
• Becoming a leading voice, informing policy development and advocacy
• Fostering an integrated system by building partnerships and facilitating networks
• Engaging and informing cross-sectoral service providers and educators who interact with children and youth
• Becoming a recognized leader in youth engagement for child and youth mental health in Ontario

Learn more about the Centre’s Accountability Framework.