Introduction: The Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health (CCSMH) was established during a National Symposium on "Gaps in Mental Health Services for Seniors in Long Term Care" in April 2002. Participants from 65 national and provincial organizations representing providers, consumers, planners/policy makers, educators, researchers and professional associations attended the event. The Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry is the lead organization for the Coalition and the Steering Committee, which includes representatives from 11 other national organizations. The mission of the Coalition is “to promote the mental health of seniors by connecting people, ideas and resources”. In phase 1 the focus is on mental health in long-term care facilities.
Objective: The presentation will detail the objectives of the Coalition, describe its ongoing projects and outline the evaluation process, which is being undertaken to assess the impact of the Coalition’s activities.
Design: Program Evaluation.
Materials and Methods: The evaluation methods include an analysis of critical events, surveys of member satisfaction, use of the Meeting Effectiveness Inventory and the Perfect Partnership Scale, as well as an assessment of the impact of specific projects.
Results: A preliminary analysis of the early impact of the Coalition will be presented. Initial successes include an eighteen month grant from the Federal Government (Health Canada-Population Health Fund) to develop an infrastructure and to create two educational inventories; one for front line workers and the other for informal caregivers. Unrestricted educational grants have also been obtained from several pharmaceutical companies. Working groups are currently focusing on human resource issues, environmental design, assessment tools, education and advocacy. A website has been established (www.ccsmh.ca).
Conclusion: The CCSMH represents a new model for national interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration in pursuit of improved mental health for seniors.
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