Developing indicators for the child and youth mental health system in Ontario

When the Government of Ontario launched a comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) was tasked with developing a scorecard for ongoing monitoring of the child and youth mental health system. Using existing administrative and survey-based healthcare and education data, researchers at ICES developed a scorecard consisting of 25 indicators that described at-risk populations, child and youth mental healthcare and relevant outcomes. This scorecard is the first in Canada to report on performance indicators for the child and youth mental health system and provides a model for monitoring child and youth mental health using routinely collected administrative data.