Welcome to the Child and Youth Mental Health Research Lab (CYMH)!
Here at the University of Ottawa, we are conducting innovative research focused on child and youth mental health. Members of this lab are interested in investigating community mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the outcomes of children who experience maltreatment, refractory eating disorders, the role of individuals’ strengths in the outcomes of treatment, as well as food and nutrition insecurity in urban Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.
On a larger scale, the Director of the lab, Dr. John Lyons, has designed and implemented a set of assessment tools and strategies that have culminated in the development of a comprehensive management approach called Total Clinical Outcomes Management (TCOM). The primary tool of TCOM is the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS), an assessment tool that can be used for decision support (e.g. service planning, level of care), quality improvement (e.g. accreditation), and outcomes monitoring (e.g. evaluation, performance contracting). Versions of the CANS have been implemented in many jurisdictions in North America, Europe and the Philippines. Currently about twenty states in the United States have accomplished or initiated state-wide implementations, and applications across Canada are currently underway.
Please feel free to contact us at smeacymh@uOttawa.ca if you would like any further information about the CYMH lab.