The Challenge

The Student Support Leadership Initiative of Niagara is a cross- ministry initiative aimed at improving communications to families about mental health services for children and youth.

The Solution

The SSLI approached Stratcom for advice about designing research that would capture the experience, impressions and opinions of the parents and guardians of children and youth facing mental health challenges. The goal of the project was to conduct a practical scan of current communications channels, assess what was working and what was not, and generate a series of recommendations that would help to prioritize future work.

The Results

Stratcom designed a participatory workshop with 22 parents and grandparents, exploring their experiences seeking and using mental health services, generating a comprehensive outline (‘Family- Powered Solutions’) for how communications from service agencies and schools to parents and guardians could be improved. The final report, which contained 11 recommendations under six separate headings, provided a template for future communications initiatives in the Niagara region. SSLI Niagara endorsed the final report and forwarded it to the provincial Ministry of Education for use in other parts of the province.