CMHO's Policy Work

Children’s Mental Health Ontario wants to partner with the provincial government in developing a funding framework for child and youth mental health. The framework must sustain an equitable, effective, and responsive system and support the continuum of mental health services for all children and youth from early intervention through to identification, assessment and treatment. Coordination, flexibility, excellence in practice and service, sustainability and recognition of the unique needs across Ontario are all cornerstones of what an ideal funding formula must contain to appropriately address the needs of children and youth with mental health issues across Ontario.

Ontario must improve on the service gaps in child and youth mental health supports, long wait times and difficulty parents experience navigating the system as it currently exists. Priority should be given to ensuring that mental health is considered and recognized as an integral component of overall health, and that those in the primary health care system, child welfare, youth justice, public health and child care sectors have the ability to respond effectively to young people in need. Attention must be paid to coordinating services, including better case coordination and cross-sector service planning. These processes should be informed by the use of evidence-informed practices that are monitored and evaluated, with the knowledge disseminated as a regular, ongoing business function within a culture of innovation.

In a climate of escalating demand for service and fiscal limitations it is critically important that service providers strive to deliver high quality, effective services that are accountable to funders. Consumers of child and youth mental health services should expect a consistent level of accessibility and quality across Ontario, with sufficient flexibility to reflect the diversity of the province’s communities. Setting and monitoring achievement of standards across all funded child and youth mental health services is a practical, feasible way to measure achievement of the strategic goals and priority areas for action as outlined in the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) policy framework. Accreditation is a means of ensuring that high standards are consistently met. Accreditation should be required for government funded organizations with a specific mandate to provide child and youth mental health intervention/treatment and should be encouraged for children’s service whose primary mandate is not treatment, but may be recreation, child care, education, physical health or mentorship. In addition to accreditation, system-wide benchmarks should be established related to service accessibility, client engagement and outcomes measurement and use of evidence-informed practices. New funding dedicated to quality improvement, measurement of system-wide benchmarks and the implementation of evidence-based practices and program evaluation will be needed to ensure success.

Suicide is the leading cause of non-accidental death among 10-24 year olds in Canada and in 2007 accounted for 20.2% percent of all deaths in this age group. Furthermore, suicide among Aboriginal youth is estimated to occur at rates five to six times higher than among non-Aboriginal youth. On average, nearly ten young lives are recorded as lost through suicide every week across the country. In spite of this, Canada as a whole, and Ontario in particular, remains without a strategy for suicide prevention. The Government of Ontario must identify child and youth suicide as a significant public and mental health concern and establish an Interministry Task Force with a mandate to develop and release a Child and Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy.

2011 Pre-budget Presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs (Feb 1, 2011; PDF, 4 pages).

2005 Pre-budget Presentation (PDF, 20 pages).

2004 Presentation (PDF, 19 pages).

"Canada ranks an astonishing fourth highest in the world in suicide rates of Canadian teenagers, 15-19 years in age, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD) first report on the well-being of children, Doing Better for Children."

CMHO issued this statement to the media following the release of Ontario's 2010 budget.

News release issued by Roberts/Smart's Board of Directors on the Centre's possible bankruptcy/closure (May8, 2009).

News Release issued by the Board of Directors of the Roberts/Smart Centre stating that after a series of discussions with officials at the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and their local bargaining agent, the Centre's doors will remain open.

This news release states that the union and agency both agree that the situation at Roberts/Smart is the result of the chronic under-funding of the child and youth mental health sector (CUPE, May 13, 2009).

PC MPP Sylvia Jones' letter to the Hon. Deb Matthews, Minister of Children and Youth Services, in regards to the possible closure of Roberts/Smart. The letter also briefly discusses the importance of early intervention in treating mental illness; Letter 2 - From Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre) to CMHO: A letter from Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi reiterating the importance of the Roberts/Smart Centre to the Ottawa community as well as stating the Ministry's initiatives to ensure the Centre's doors remain open (PDF, 1 p).

An email from CMHO Executive Director and CEO Gordon Floyd to all members of provincial parliament and members of the Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions regarding the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre.

Official Queen's Park Hansard transcript of members of provincial parliament Lisa MacLeod, Norm Sterling and France Gélinas questionning the government on its plans for preventing the closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre; May 26 Transcript: Official Queen's Park Hansard transcript of NDP MPP France Gélinas highligting the need for increased funding for child and youth mental health during third reading of Bill 162: Budget Measures Act (PDF, 56 pages).

Newspaper Articles/Letters to the Editor Newspaper articles and Letters to the Editor regarding the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre in Ottawa and the interim, workable solution that was reached to keep the centre's doors open.

• Roberts/Smart flip-flop buys centre time (HTML, 2 pages): The Roberts/Smart Centre's union agrees to a three-year, workable solution; the province has launched a review of the centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 29, 2009).
• Youth need this help (HTML, 1 page): Letter to the Editor about the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 14, 2009).
• Youth mental health mishandled: experts (HTML, 3 pages): Youth mental health should be funded as a program vs. a medical service. This article was written in response to the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 14, 2009).
• Don't forsake these teens (HTML, 2 pages): An editorial about the political short-sightedness of not providing funding for child and youth mental health written in response to the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2009).
• We should know better (HTML, 1 page): A Letter to the Editor about the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2009).
• Nowhere else to go (HTML, 3 pages): An article about the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre in Ottawa (The Ottawa Citizen, May 20, 2009).
• Rural Ontario needs services for youth at risk (HTML, 1 page): A Letter to the Editor highlighting the lack of mental health and addiction services for youth in rural Ontario. The comments were prompted following an opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen about the possible closure of the Roberts/Smart Centre (The Ottawa Citizen, May 20 2009).
• Roberts/Smart mental-health centre to stay open (HTML, 2 pages): The Roberts/Smart Centre is to remain open following its Board's decision to rescind an earlier vote authorizing staff to file for bankruptcy at the end of May (The Ottawa Citizen, May 29, 2009).