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One CAMH: Strategic Plan 2020-2023
Goals
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“Let’s do something big and bold that people will notice and will have an impact.”Engagement participant, CAMH strategic plan development |
Priority actions |
In 2018, an unprecedented $100 million anonymous donation fuelled the launch of the CAMH Discovery Fund. The fund fosters hope as it drives research that aspires to bold, concrete impacts: lower rates of suicide; reduced disability associated with common mental disorders; and better outcomes for people with psychosis.
The fund invests in people, ideas and a discovery platform. To date, its results include the launch of two major and ongoing funding competitions: a seed-funding competition that has supported 15 CAMH researchers with two-year awards; and a talent development competition that has supported the recruitment of 36 post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. The fund will also support the launch of several “transformative idea” projects in 2020–2021. This will include research around ways to decrease disability related to addiction.
The fund supports convergence platforms such as the CAMH BrainHealth Databank (under the leadership of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics). Designed to collect all types of data from patients (e.g., behavioural, brain structure, genetic, sleep pattern, electronic health record), the databank will advance personalized treatment for mental illness.
In alignment with the “Hope through Discovery” priority action (within Inspire) and the “Patient and Family Engagement” priority action (within Include), the fund unlocks new ways to diagnose, predict, prevent and recover from mental illness. It enhances the data, platforms and analytics that support research, and enables work to integrate research with clinical practice.
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
This multi-year initiative builds on the strengths and increases the reliability of our clinical services to ensure the best care experiences and outcomes. For example, our efforts to prevent suicide increase in reliability when we use the same best-practice protocols with every patient. Among other benefits, this allows clinicians across CAMH to track changes in patient health over time through measurement-based care.
CAMH practice-based evidence shows that people who seek care may struggle with substance use problems in addition to their mental health challenges, so our clinicians always ask. Our response to COVID-19 presented an opportunity to test further integrated models of care. As we learn about our successes and challenges in accelerating these care advancements, it helps us to offer services that reflect a full spectrum of needs and to identify opportunities to improve people's ability to access the care that is right for them.
This priority action represents our commitment to using technology and analytics, including our recently launched BrainHealth Databank, to expand our measurement-based care and increase access to integrated, trauma-informed models of care. With links to “Digital Health Innovation @CAMH” (within Include) and “Connected Systems of Care” (within Impact), it builds on innovation already under way (e.g., in our Mood and Anxiety and our Schizophrenia outpatient services).
2020–2021
2021-2023
2022–2023
Developed in the spirit of reconciliation, CAMH's Guiding Directions: A Plan to Strengthen Our Practices and Partnerships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples outlined a five-year framework for action.
Its 57 recommendations influenced change in areas including clinical care, research, governance and recruitment. In the final year of this framework, these changes inspired the evolution of the Aboriginal Engagement and Outreach program into Shkaabe Makwa, a centre for innovation and integration of practices for First Nations, Inuit and Métis wellness.
Through a focus on alignment across CAMH, Shkaabe Makwa’s mission is to connect with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and service providers across Ontario to drive culturally relevant systems initiatives that achieve health equity and community wellness. In keeping with the focus on alignment, this priority action connects strongly to "Fair and Just CAMH" and "Responsive Access to Care" (both within Include).
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
Ontario’s health care system is in a period of large-scale transformation to provide timely, high-quality, person-centred care. We offer our resources and influence to ensure mental health stands at the centre of that transformation.
The pervasive impact of COVID-19 reinforces our belief that mental health is health. For people with mental illness, a patient-centred system must consider housing, income support, education and food security. We commit to building on existing partnerships and to establishing new ones across those sectors.
Hand in hand with Ontario health teams and the new Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, as well as community agencies, hospitals and primary care representatives, we are dedicated to creating modern, sustainable and connected systems of care that bring to life our vision of health redefined.
There are strong connections between this priority action and “Responsive Access to Care” and “Collaboration and Co-Design” (within Include) and “Caring and Accountable CAMH” (within Impact).
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
The demand for mental health knowledge has grown dramatically. Combined with the imperative to rapidly scale and spread care innovations, CAMH’s education and knowledge exchange work stands at the centre of unprecedented system and community capacity-building needs.
As Canada’s leading mental health teaching hospital, CAMH trains a significant portion of psychiatrists in Canada, as well as thousands of other existing and emerging mental health professionals, patients and the public. Through our publications, partnerships and technology-enabled platforms, such as our Simulation Centre—the first of its kind dedicated to mental health—we drive system transformation through the spread of best practices.
Education and knowledge exchange underpin several CAMH initiatives and feature in many One CAMH priority actions, including “Collaboration and Co-Design” (within Include), “Individual and Team Health” (within Inspire) and “Caring and Accountable CAMH” and “Connected Systems of Care” (within Impact).
As an education and knowledge exchange system leader, we are committed to preparing clinicians and communities for the future by making use of technology, monitoring impact and ensuring alignment with emerging needs.
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
Engagement participant, CAMH strategic plan development
People are getting used to interacting with others through a video screen. For the dedicated group of health experts at ECHO Ontario Mental Health, it’s part of their day-to-day.
The team connects health care providers in remote communities, where far fewer resources is the reality, with clinicians and educators from across the province, allowing them to learn from one another. Their focus has long been Ontario’s diverse health care needs, with topics such as First Nations, Inuit and Métis wellness and trans and gender-diverse health care.
In response to COVID-19, the ECHO Ontario Coping with COVID program launched to support over 500 health care providers, with numbers continually increasing.
Eva Serhal, Director of Virtual Mental Health & Outreach and ECHO Ontario Mental Health
Read how our Include direction commands consideration of all voices and pushes us to find those that are missing.
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