Project 460734

Approximately 1 in 5 Canadian children and adolescents have at least one mental health problem, with up to 70% continuing into adulthood. As such, the transition from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adult mental health services (AMHS) is experienced by many Canadian youth and requires dedicated support and intervention. In our recent scoping review, we identified several components of successful transitions, however found limited agreement among experts regarding which components are most important and feasible in creative positive CAMHS-AMHS transition experiences. The project team then led a Delphi study, engaging youth, caregiver, and service provider experts from across Canada to reach agreement on the core components of successful CAMHS-AMHS transitions. In total, 26 core components of successful transitions were refined and retained. In response to numerous requests from organizations to support the design and implementation of transition programs based on these core components, the project team created a CAMHS-AMHS transition toolkit: UNITE. The UNITE toolkit explains each of the core components and provides information, resources, and activities to support mental health organizations to develop and evaluate transition strategies for youth and their families. Based on the work to date, the purpose of this project is to collaborate with stakeholders, including youth and caregivers, to co-design and disseminate the UNITE toolkit. The UNITE team will finalize a pilot version of the toolkit for use at a full day training hosted in January 2023. The purpose of this workshop will be to work through the toolkit content with participants and gather further feedback from participants to ensure the toolkit works best for them. Following the workshop, the project team will use the feedback to update the toolkit, before launching UNITE in Spring 2023 for use across Canada.