MINUTES
Sept. 14 2015 (1:30-4:00)
Location: Hincks Dellcrest (Maitland)
Toronto Service Area Child & Youth Mental Health
k/i/d/ System Performance Management Work Group
Attendees: Alain Mootoo, Vice President Finance and Administration, Surrey Place, Charlie Carter Knowledge Broker The Centre of
Excellence, Cheryl Webb, Executive Director Adventure Place, Christopher King Co-ordinator - Quality of Service and Evaluation, The
ECC/Adventure Place, Diane Bartlett Director R & E George Hull, Ewa Deszynski Executive Director, The ECC, Irene Bevc Director Evaluation
Hincks Dellcrest, Katina Watson Director of Service Yorktown Child and Family Services, Marg Walsh, Evaluation Director, CDI, Michael
Tross Director of Service Youthlink, Roger Rolfe, Researcher CTYS, Tony Calabrese, Manager, R&E Deslisle, Kathleen Patterson, Centre
Francophone
Regrets: Myra Levy, Clinical Director, East Metro Youth Services, Roberta Bustard Director – Lead Agency Strategy East Metro Youth
Services, Michele Lupa, Executive Director, Mothercraft
No conflicts of interest were declared at the start of the meeting.
Action Register:
- Action: Tony to share Ministry presentation on systems approach
- Action: Tanya to provide Sept. 9 follow up materials, including meeting recap and key themes on Green/Black hat exercise
- Action: EMYS to clarify the ‘To Do’ list for Year 1 – the key deliverables
- Action: Ewa to circulate the Terms of Reference revisions.
- Action: Irene to share fitgap analysis from Ministry once available
- Action: Ewa asked each member of the team to track their time spent both in meetings and in creating materials in support of the
working group.
- Action: EMYS to provide Master workback calendar for working groups
- Action: Alain Mootoo, Vice President Finance and Administration, Surrey to present at next meeting for 15 minutes to provide an
overview of his agency’s system/data approach.
2. Sept. 9, Meeting 2015 Feedback - Attendees were asked to feedback on the Sept. 9 meeting. There was consensus that the team felt the
working groups were well-received and things were “on the right track.”
• Working Group feedback
- Consensus that the working group presentations were also on the right track, that there was “a big row to hoe” for the
data team, and that the team was looking forward to more clarity on Year 1, 2 and 3 priority activities
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- Action: Roberta to clarify the ‘To Do’ list for Year 1 – the key deliverables
Challenges and Opportunities feedback
- Tanya Pobuda from EMYS provided an overview on the Green Hat/Black Hat exercise.
Communications
- Green Hat themes: Use Keep It Simple (KISS) approach, be concise, consistent, sing from the “same song sheet,”
leverage social media, use videos and interactive communications vehicles, ensure diverse voices are consulted and
represented.
- Black Hat themes: Be careful not to communicate too quickly until there is a clear understanding of the key messages
and go-forward plans, make sure we ensure diverse communities are part of the consultations, don’t over-rely on email, don’t try to “engage everyone on EVERYTHING,”-ask and understand “how to address/accommodate multiplicity
of languages (and cultures) in Toronto?”
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• EMYS update
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Service Mapping
Green Hat themes: The importance of using demographic, community and neighbourhood data to inform this process,
looking at ways to optimize access in certain areas, and identify where service gaps occur and build capacity, looking to
other sectors for tools and best practices in this area (i.e. healthcare).
Black Hat themes: “If a survey is used to fill gaps in information, there may be barriers to completion” because of the
number of surveys teams are asked to complete, there is a risk that some services may get missed – not all agencies are
100% funded by MCYS but deliver mental health services to youth, lack of standard service definitions, “Everyone
needs to define services in the same way” and be consistent, rigourous in their sharing of information.”
Centralized Point of Access (CPA)
Green Hat themes: “Could finally get good data,” “Can we piggyback on infrastructure our ideas of a 211/findhelp.ca?”
Black Hat themes: “A CPA must not mean youth having insurmountable barriers to face-to-face contract,” “you need one
organization dedicated to this complex role,” “if clients find the right door you better make sure something is behind it,”
“What happens to the successful walk-in programs?
Knowledge, Information, Data, Systems k/i/d/s
Green Hat themes: Participants saw great value in a single system for data collection and performance measurement,
“Don’t try to solve all of the data problems, be practical and realistic,” “It would be great to have a common database to
which the entire system has access including other sectors like health, education, etc”.
Black Hat themes: Participants cautioned the working group to focus in on privacy, security and training
considerations, there was concern about new solutions being impacted by a lack of accurate consistent data collection
given how busy frontline staff can be, “We need one database or databases that can speak to each other”
Tanya P noted that EMYS was planning an upcoming newsletter, one-pager for frontline staff & Board members, She
also noted that two project managers were being hired.
• Update from MCYS working group (Sept. 14) Tony
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Tony provided the highlights of a presentation made by the Ministry. There is an active fitgap analysis happening at the
Ministry. The focus of the presentation was building a system approach to track the 13 priority Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). It was noted that the financial data would continue to be reported through the transfer data process.
This would be business as usual.
Big considerations were confidentiality and data access. There was a discussion about determining what systems and
data processes were in place at other agencies.
Team agreed that the Ministry process needed to be closely tracked, that there might not be a near-term solution for 23 years.
It was further agreed that the data priorities & decisions were the most important considerations – that the systems
needed to enable that.
Action: Tony offered to make the Ministry presentation available to the team.
b. Key take aways for Vision and Terms of Reference
It was agreed that a few refinements need to be made to the Vision – this action deferred to the next meeting/discussion once the team had
further reviewed.
3. Terms of Reference Review
Revisions were made during the session and ratified. There was good consensus on the revised Terms of Reference.
Action: Ewa to circulate the Terms of Reference revisions.
There was a brief 10-minute break.
4. What do we still need to know? Priorities? Resources needed?
There was discussion about the importance of having core communications materials for frontline staff and leadership at each of the 33
agencies.
The team discussed having an EMYS project manager or representative to support the work at each session.
It was agreed that the team needed access to Ministry materials/communications – with a priority requirement around getting access to the
fitgap analysis.
Action: Irene to share fitgap analysis from Ministry once available
Team discussed ensuring that all of the agencies had common definitions for things like ‘referral date’ ‘treatment start date’.
Team discussed ensuring they look into common identifier approaches, this will ensure trackability and traceability of one individual who
might be on multiple wait lists, as well as providing more holistic care. Discussions with other sectors like healthcare and education to
determine best practices, approaches.
There was a discussion about looking at the Mothercraft approach (CSIS) and determining the systems, personnel processes and training
that went into the work of transitioning to new systems.
There was a point made about needing a Gantt schedule to know what the key dates and milestones are.
Action: EMYS to provide the Master workback calendar
4. Work plan, Responsibilities, and timelines
Christopher King presented the work plan. It was well-received by the team. It was agreed that this was the right structure. Chris noted that
he needed the overall workback and more details to flesh it out further. The team agreed that it would need to be determined what other
agencies had in place, “how attached” are they to their existing systems” and what the full cost/effort would be to transition. It isn’t just
system costs but training, person time as well.
The team discussed what “an ideal system looked like” …asking fellow agencies “what (data) nirvana” looked like. It was agreed that they
needed to carefully manage issues like confidentiality and privacy and perhaps connect with the Ministry privacy person at a later point.
Action: Ewa asked each member of the team to track their time spent both in meetings and in creating materials in support of the working
group.
5. External Advisor Recommendations
Alain Mootoo, Vice President Finance and Administration, Surrey Place noted that the first consideration in these projects is what decisions
are being made – what data is needed to drive these decisions effectively?
There was discussion about looking into how data is entered, how could that process be made more effective? Who will manage issues of
data integrity, ensuring there are no errors or misunderstanding of definitions – ensuring inter-agency consistency.
The question was asked: What do we know? There was discussion of prioritizing requirements against the 13 Ministry KPIs as a possible
starting point.
Action: Alain Mootoo, Vice President Finance and Administration, Surrey to present at next meeting for 15 minutes to provide an overview
of his agency’s approach.
6. Next steps
7. Evaluation of meeting
a. Are clients at the centre of our work?
a. The team agreed they touched on it somewhat but would look to better integrate that perspective next meeting.
b. Will today’s work benefit front line staff?
a. There was some discussion but team said they would discuss this more next meeting.
c. Did we consider diversity and inclusion?
a. This was not a prominent part of the meeting.
d. Recommendation for improvement
a. There was consensus this was an effective meeting