Ready...Set...Engage! Building Effective Youth-Adult Partnerships for a Stronger Child and Youth Mental Health System
Brings forward best practices for engaging youth and building effective youth-adult partnerships. It looks at ways to support young people as decision makers, provides organizational-assessment tools, and outlines the concrete steps needed to initiate and sustain meaningful youth involvement.
Improving the Health of Canadians: Mental Health, Delinquincy and Criminal Activity
The study presents new analyses of the latest research, surveys and policy initiatives across Canada related to mental health and criminal behaviour among youth and adults.
Children's Mental Health Plan for Alberta (2008 - 2011)
The Plan supports the Health Action Plan by providing direction and funding over the next three years for strategies to improve access to mental health services for infants, children, youth and their families. The Children’s Mental Health Plan also aligns with the Health Action Plan by addressing the needs of children and youth at risk, which contributes to healthy and safe communities.
Autism Spectrum Disorders: New Directions in Research, Clinical Practice and Policy
This three-day conference will present addresses and workshops on the latest research findings and clinical applications in the diagnosis and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in children, adolescents, and adults. Once considered rare, autism affects 1 in 150 individuals and is characterized by difficulties in responding appropriately to the environment, developing relationships, and communicating effectively, as well as resistance to change and repetitive behaviours. To date there is no definitive cause or cure for this complex neurodevelopmental disorder. Leading researchers and practitioners from across North America will describe current research, including important advances in neuroscience and genetics. The conference will also examine the importance of early diagnosis, effective interventions and policies in enhancing outcomes for individuals and families impacted by autism. The target
audience for this conference includes researchers, clinicians and policy makers working in the field of autism.
Improving the Health of Canadians: Exploring Positive Mental Health
This publication brings together available information and data analyses that look at one way of defining positive mental health, how we currently measure it, its role in health, the factors associated with high levels of positive mental health and what strategies are, or may be, effective at promoting mental health at a population level.
Doing Better for Children
The well-being of children is high on the policy agenda across the OECD. But what is the actual state of child well-being today? How much are governments spending on children and are they spending it at the right times? What social and family policies have the most impact during children’s earliest years? Is growing up in a single-parent household detrimental to children? Is inequality that persists across generations a threat to child well-being? Doing Better for Children addresses these questions and more.
Health & Wellbeing in Children, Youth, and Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Autism, Intellectual Disabilities and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
This conference will provide education and informative updates on psychiatric, behavioural and complex health components specific to individuals with Developmental Disabilities, and showcase best practices in the field. Specifically, the conference will focus on approaches to complex challenging behaviours, contributing medical issues and new developments in medication and behavioral treatment. In addition, the conference will address important health issues including Reflux, Pain, Epilepsy, Dental Management and Sleep. Health problems in common genetic syndromes such as Down and Fragile X will also be addressed.
Progress for Children. A Report Card on Child Protection
The Chief Public Health Officer's Report on The State of Public Health in Canada 2009
This report is the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada's second annual report to Parliament on the state of public health in Canada. It considers the lifecourse approach to health — focusing on the lifelong impact of exposures and influences that occur early in life — and explores the current state of children's health in Canada up to and including age 11 years.
From this information, a number of worrying trends emerge that are either persistent or are increasing in prevalence, especially among certain sub-populations of children. Efforts to address these negative trends and reduce their impacts on children's health and development vary in approach and magnitude, from targeted community-level interventions to nationwide universal programs. Evidence suggests that, in some cases, broad multi-pronged approaches need to be developed, while in others current efforts should be supplemented in order to reach all those in need. Examples of successful and promising initiatives and research, both within Canada and abroad, provide guidance on optimal conditions and priorities to help children start and continue on the path to good health.
Pathways to Resilience II: The Social Ecology of Resilience
This conference, our second, brings together presenters from six continents to explore aspects of resilience such as how we:
• design clinical interventions and social programs to make resilience more likely
• offer informal community supports in ways young people want
• nurture healthy family, school and community relationships
• celebrate cultural traditions that support children’s mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well-being
• design schools for vulnerable learners
• negotiate social policy that is child and youth friendly
• secure peace and contribute to social justice and citizenship for children
Together, as an interdisciplinary group, we will discuss not only how children beat the odds stacked against them, but how professionals and caregivers can change those odds so that young people around the world experience resilience in culturally meaningful ways.




