By Sarah Bonato, Reference/Research Librarian, CAMH Library
United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare. The early years are an important foundation for children’s current mental welfare and their future mental health through life.
See below for info on the state of children’s mental health in Ontario.
Children’s Mental Health Ontario
An association representing Ontario’s publicly-funded Child and Youth Mental Health Centres.
- A source for statistics, facts, and resources for parents, teachers, youth and professionals, along with other info. Resources include the ABCs of Mental Health (2013), a web-based source for teachers and parents on the behaviour of children and adolescents. The ABCs of Mental Health has info on how to promote mental health, how children may change as they grow older, descriptions of possible problematic behaviours, and practical suggestions for when and how to seek help.
Other info and reports on such topics as child/family-centred care, residential treatment and wait time data is also available.
Access at https://www.sickkidscmh.ca/ABC/Welcome
Ontario Centre for Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health
- An association that works with agencies in Ontario to improve the child and youth mental health system, provides resources for evidence-informed practice, and actively engages in knowledge dissemination on issues regarding child and youth mental health.
Their Resource Hub has evidence summaries, reports, training modules, policy papers and more. One recent policy paper is Paving the Path to Connected care: Strengthening the Interface Between Primary Care and Community-Based Child and Youth Mental Health Services (2017). This policy paper includes a systematic scoping review of the literature, and an environmental scan of existing primary care and community-based child and youth mental health services models.
Access at https://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/sites/default/files/resource/policy_primary_care.pdf
Portico
- Search for even more resources on Portico at https://www.porticonetwork.ca/search?i_search=child+mental+health
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