The Place of the Western Canada Waitlist Project in Regional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program Services.

In this presentation is described the history of the Western Canada Waitlist Project (WCWL) and its implementation within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program. Highlighted is how the Western Canada Waitlist Project fits into regional clinical and accountability processes. Our results confirm that the Western Canada Waitlist Project Children's Mental Health component is a useful, economic instrument. For example, 11,067 Children's Mental Health Priority Criteria Score (CMH-PCS) forms have been completed since the beginning of the project in 2002. Not only have the WCWL data been used clinically to place clients within the continuum of care and develop priority and safety flags, the WCWL data have also been used to predict and model clinical outcomes. The current paper highlights the degree to which the WCWL-CMH-PCS, gathered at the time of screening and triage, prior to admission, predicts clinical outcomes at the time of discharge. Described is the way in which we plan to use this information to flag on admission, for the purpose of additional intervention, children who are at risk of poor clinical outcomes.