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Researchers Elizabeth McCay and Kristin Cleverley have identified a knowledge gap in the health care field – and their efforts to fill it will ultimately lead to a more inclusive and effective approach to mental health and addiction treatment.

McCay is research chair in urban health in Ryerson’s Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing and Cleverley is director of practice research and innovation at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Together, they are leading a pilot study to examine best practices in interprofessional, client- and family-centred care for mental health and addiction. The Ryerson-CAMH Collaborative for Client-centred Care is funded by a $200,000 donation from Valerie Pringle, Radio and Television Arts ’74 and her husband, Andrew.

“The collaborative initiative is enabling us to build research capacity in order to understand the elements that are essential to improving care. This would not be possible without the outstanding partnership between Ryerson and CAMH,” says McCay.

The Ryerson-CAMH Collaborative for Client-Centred Care is leading the way in formally studying client-centred care within a mental health setting. Although clinicians at CAMH use client-centred care in their professional practice, the extent of client and family involvement in treatment options and care is historically unknown across health care settings. Previous studies by researchers in other fields, however, have found that clients are more likely to follow their treatment plans if they (and their families) are included in the decision-making process, and their unique needs and preferences are noted by health care teams. This involvement, in turn, leads to a more effective recovery.

So what’s the thinking behind client-centred care? Simply put, clients and their families usually know what treatment strategies will work best for them. In order to achieve an optimal outcome, client-centred care health teams have to work well together, with each member understanding his or her responsibilities, and everybody communicating and collaborating effectively. In a mental health setting, for example, clinicians work closely together to help clients make smoother transitions from one mental health unit to another or from inpatient to outpatient care.  

By gathering information from questionnaires with health care providers, such as nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and psychiatrists, as well as client interviews and focus groups with families across a number of programs at CAMH, McCay and Cleverley hope to better understand two things: how clinicians perceive team effectiveness and the provision of client-centred care, and how clients and families view the practice. “We are trying to determine the extent to which interprofessional collaboration affects the client’s ability to participate in their care,” says Cleverley.

Ultimately, the researchers want to learn how health care providers can more effectively communicate and collaborate with each other, as well as with clients and their families to refine treatment processes and enhance the quality of care. In the future, McCay and Cleverley also hope to secure further funding to investigate client-centred care and recommend ways that the practice can be successfully supported in mental health settings.

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 20 percent of Canadians will personally experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. McCay and Cleverley believe it is critical to develop new ways of assisting clients in their recovery and that their research into client-centred care can make an important contribution.