Project 173158

The purpose of this project is to assess the feasibility of linking pre-existing individual level child and adolescent data from community mental health service agencies with health care administrative records over time, including those covering inpatient hospitalization, emergency department visits and outpatient physician contacts in the province of Ontario. The knowledge gained will help tailor more comprehensive research proposals and enhance research capacity to address the impact of access and delivery of mental health services on health outcomes of vulnerable children and adolescents. This one year project will include exploratory work with these data bases and an investigation of accessibility and privacy issues to ascertain under what conditions linked secondary analyses would be possible and desirable. Specifically, data captured by CAFAS (Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale) in Ontario will be considered in relation to the above noted administrative health care data sources housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Ontario. The study investigators are quite familiar with these data sources and work actively with decision-makers in translating evidence into policy and practice.