For more information, visit:

Community Health Systems Resource Group

CAFAS in Ontario

www.melaniebarwick.com

Brief Biography

Dr. Melanie Barwick is a Registered Psychologist and Health Systems Research Scientist in the Community Health Systems Resource Group at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).  She is an Associate Scientist and Scientific Director of Knowledge Translation in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program of the Hospital’s Research Institute, and Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.  She is a member of the Education Council for the SickKids Learning Institute.  Dr. Barwick received her doctorate in Educational Psychology at McGill University and did consecutive post-doctoral fellowships in Developmental Psychopathology and Infant Mental Health at the Hincks Institute in Toronto.

Dr. Barwick plays a leadership role in the training and implementation of the Province's outcome measurement initiative which involves the use of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS).  CAFAS is a province-wide mental health outcome measure to determine whether the overall functioning of children and youth who receive mental health services improve as a result.

Her program of research includes work in the areas of knowledge translation and implementation science.

Research Interests

• Implementation Science and Knowledge Translation
• Health Organizational Change
• Practice Change
• Mental Health Systems
• Children's Mental Health
• Outcome Measurement

Research Activities

Dr. Barwick leads the Province-wide outcome measurement initiative in children's mental health (CMH) services.  Her team oversees the training, implementation, and data management of CAFAS, mandated for use in 114 CMH service provider organizations across Ontario.  To date, over 6,000 CMH practitioners (social workers, psychologists, child and youth workers, psychiatrists) have been trained and are supported in practice to reliably apply the CAFAS to assess response to treatment and collect outcome data for their client populations.  Further information about this initiative, including annual data reports, can be found on the initiative's web site: www.cafasinontario.ca

In this practice context, Dr. Barwick studies innovative knowledge translation strategies and the implementation of evidence-based practices.  She leads a five-year CIHR Emerging Team in Knowledge Translation for Child and Youth Mental Health (2008-2013; KT For Kids) that will develop and evaluate an innovative implementation model to bring evidence-based practices into both the children's mental health and education sectors.  She has also developed the Scientist Knowledge Translation Training Program and the Knowledge Translation Professional Certificate, to provide researchers and KT practitioners with skill building training in KT.  Dr. Barwick consults to the Child and Youth Mental Health sector and is a regular contributor to the CBC Health Weekly Check Up.

Committees

• CPA (Creative Professional Activity) Promotions Working Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.  Chair: Dr. Ivan Silver (March 2011 - present)
• KT Corporate Working Group, Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions (2011 - present)
• Working Together for Kids Mental Health, Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services Initiative (2010 - present)
• Global Implementation Conference, Organizing Committee Member (2010 - present)
• Ginger Council, “Using Online Patient Dialogue for Quality Improvement in Healthcare” – An Innovation Cell and Change Foundation Partnership (Neil Seeman, Innovation Cell, Massey College, University of Toronto)  (2010 – 2011)
• Co-Chair, Policy Subcommittee, Evidence-Based Practice Consortium (USA and Canada) (July 2009 – present)
• Education Council, Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children (2007 - present)

Recent Consultations

• Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health
• U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Violence Prevention
• National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices
• Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services

External Funding

Primary Investigator

2010-2011 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
The Medical Home of Children and Youth in Canada

2010-2011 CIHR Meetings, Planning and Dissemination Grant
Knowledge Translation Community of Practice Linkage and Exchange Meetings,

2009-2010 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Conference Grant - Getting to Uptake: Leveraging Social Innovation for Practice Change

2009-2010 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Catalyst Grant
The Feasibility of Individually Linking Children’s Mental Health Service Records

2008-2013 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Emerging Team in Knowledge Translation for Child and Youth Mental Health

Co-Investigator

2011-2015 CIHR
Sustainability of a Multidimensional Knowledge Translation Intervention to Improve Paediatric Pain Practices and Outcomes

2011-2016 CIHR Team Grant
Better Nights/Better Days: Improving Psychosocial Health Outcomes in Children with Behavioural Insomnia. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

2010-2014 CIHR
Predicting and Understanding Patterns of Service Utilization in Children's Mental Health Agencies

2010-2012 AUTO21 NCE
Childhood Vehicle Safety, Booster Seat Interventions

2009-2015 CIHR STIHR - Strategic Training Grant
The Social Aetiology of Mental Illness

Achievements

• Yorktown Family Services Community Award (2006)
• Best Poster, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (2006)
• Minister's Award for Knowledge Transfer Research, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (2002)

Hosted Symposia

Getting to Uptake: Leveraging Social Innovation for Practice Change. (2009).  Sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and The Hospital for Sick Children.

Publications

Stevens, B., Abbott, L, K., Yamada, J., Harrison, D., Stinson, J., Taddio, A., Barwick, M., (CI) Latimer, M., Scott, S., Rashotte, J., Campbell, F., Finley, A., with the CIHR Team in Pediatric Pain.  (2011). Epidemiology and Management of Painful Procedures in Hospitalized Children across Canada.  Canadian Medical Association Journal, Apr 2011; 183(7): E403 - E410 ; doi:10.1503/cmaj.101341v

Bruce, B., Snowdon, A., Cunningham, C.E., Cramm, C. L., Whittle, K., Correale, H., Barwick, M (CI)., Piotrowski, C., Warda, L.  (2011). Predicting Parents’ Use of Booster Seats.  Accepted, Injury Prevention, IP Online First, published on March 17, 2011 as 10.1136/ip.2010.029181.

Barwick, M (SRA), Kimber, M., & Fearing, G. (2011). Shifting Sands: A Case Study of Process Change in Scaling Up for Evidence-Based Practice. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 10(8), 97-114.

Brown, J., Rounthwaite, J., & Barwick, M (SRA).  (2010) Implementing Evidence-Based Practices: A Transformational Organizational Change.  International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 10 (7), 33-54.

Barwick M. (SRA), Peters J., Boydell KM.  (2009). Getting to Uptake: Do Communities of Practice Support the Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice?  Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18(1), 16-29.

Barwick M, (SRA) Boydell KM, Stasiulis E, Ferguson HB, Blase K, Fixsen D.  (2008). Research utilization among children’s mental health providers, Implementation Science, 3:19.

Boydell, K.M, Pong, R. Barwick, M., (CPA) & Stasiulis, E.  (2008). Challenges of knowledge translation in rural communities: The case of rural children’s mental health.  Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Spring Edition.