2024 CMHO Conference

In line with the conference's theme of “Together for Tomorrow: Better Outcomes for Infants, Children, Youth and Families,” CMHO has three streams for workshop proposals to select from. Throughout, we encourage the proposals to demonstrate a connection to the conference theme around better outcomes and our objectives of advancing quality, equity and access.  

Workshops can also focus on one or more distinct communities or populations and intersectionality’s. Examples include for racialized groups, Francophone populations, Indigenous communities, 2SLGBTQ+ communities and Northern, rural and remote communities.

1. Empowering Clinicians and Enhancing Direct Service

This stream is dedicated to service-delivery in child and youth mental; empowering clinicians and direct service by highlighting evidence-based practice, new and emerging approaches and innovative interventions. Workshops will focus on the growing needs of infants, children, youth and families and will address the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and promoting distinct ways to address the needs of diverse populations. We are looking for leading and innovative clinical interventions and service delivery practices that move us towards more equitable and high-quality care and demonstrating improved outcomes.

Some examples under this stream can include, but are not limited to:

• Concurrent disorders, addictions, substance use, behavioral addictions 
• Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 
• Complementary options to talk-therapy (for example, EMDR, play/art based) 
• Options for working with neurodiverse clients 
• Pre-natal, infants and early years 
• Workshops centering Indigenous principles and Indigenous-led initiatives 
• Africentric care and practice 
• De-colonized approaches to working with diverse communities 
• Supporting Transition-Aged Youth 
• Family and caregiver supports and services 
• Francophone initiatives 
• Identity-affirming care, including for 2SLGBTQ+ communities 
• In-home interventions 

2.Building Organizational Culture and Capacity  

This stream focuses on how to build organizational culture and capacity that enables and fosters innovation & effectiveness, quality improvement, accountability and anti-racism and anti-oppression.  Workshops will focus on challenges facing those in leadership positions in creating safer, inclusive and innovative workplaces to advance the work of the sector. They will highlight methodologies for improving supportive work environments to improve accessibility and quality of services to demonstrate impactful leadership and organizational practices.

Some examples under this stream can include, but are not limited to:

• Implementing equity-based practices and advancing de-colonization, anti-racism and anti-oppression at the organizational level 
• Initiatives to further build capacity in youth and family engagement, partnership and co-design 
• Implementing organizational initiatives to advance quality improvement, data collection, outcome measurement 
• AI initiatives to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiencies 
• Technology as an enabler and a risk 
• Experiences and lessons learned with integration and mergers and amalgamations
• Successful recruitment and retention initiatives, including workplace wellbeing 
• Enhancing and strengthening governance 
• Leadership development and succession planning 

3. Driving Systems Level Change and Improvement

Workshops in this stream will focus on overarching systems of mental health and addictions for infants, children, youth and families. These presentations will delve into how different sector partners are challenging and transforming the system, by focusing on addressing systemic barriers, advancing policy solutions, mobilizing knowledge and exploring strategies for restructuring and organizing mental health and addictions systems to better serve infants, children, youth and families.

Some examples under this stream can include, but are not limited to:

• Cross sector approaches – child welfare, youth justice, education, primary care, hospitals, etc 
• Perspectives on governance, transparency and accountability at a systems level such as data collection and sharing 
• Leadership and the need for implementation science to drive effective change 
• Collaborations, partnerships and integrated approaches  
• Integrating care and better pathways between sectors, including for specific populations  
• Innovation in coordinated and centralized access to improve navigation within the child and youth mental health and addictions system 
• Experiences building integrated organizational approaches, for example to improve efficiencies, productivity and outcomes 
• Experiences elevating youth and family voice in systems change