Research Today Improves Recovery Tomorrow

CAMH is advancing a number of research projects aimed at helping patients today, with an eye toward improving the treatments of tomorrow.

YouthCan IMPACT is a multi-site study led by CAMH that compares hospital-based outpatient mental health care to a community-based one-stop-shop model.

“Co-created with youth, YouthCan IMPACT is offering young people innovative services that are easily accessible and rigorously evaluated,” says Dr. Joanna Henderson, Director of the Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health. “This work is helping build better service models for youth across Ontario’s communities for the future.”

Building on this work, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, with support from the Graham Boeckh Foundation, are launching up to 15 integrated service hubs to address gaps in youth mental health care. Dr. Henderson is the project lead for Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario.

Additionally, the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition is integrating research into care to ensure young people experiencing psychosis and complex mental illness have access to leading-edge treatment, including non-invasive brain stimulation, virtual reality treatments and Cognitive Adaptation Training.

Since the Centre’s launch in 2015, its centralized recruitment model has helped boost young people’s participation in research, providing approximately 300 young people treatment for depression, schizophrenia and autism through various projects, with another 600 youth participating in other studies.