Child Development and Mental Health

Child development assessment is time and resource intensive, and the type of service families receive can vary widely. This Clinical Academic Group (CAG) brings together developmental assessment units across Sydney Health Partners to use research to co-design novel clinical pathways and models of care to transform the assessment process for children, families and clinicians.

The CAG has brought together multi-disciplinary teams across the SHP, for the first time, to allow for conversations, collaboration and to generate outcomes that will:

• Bring together stakeholders (clinicians, researchers, consumers) to share knowledge and identify current issues and challenges for the field and to prioritise responses.
• Develop and test innovative automated digital tools and telehealth approaches to improve responsiveness of assessment and support for clinicians and families.
• Evaluate different models of care that integrate collaborative care, technology, and educational tools to optimise clinical care pathways to increase capacity, acceptability and effectiveness of assessments for children, families and their partners.
• Facilitate engagement with community advisory groups to partner the CAG, including caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental and associated mental health conditions and youth and adults with neurodevelopmental and associated mental health conditions.
• Promote a clinically integrated research hub for researchers and clinicians to engage in translational research and training to improve capacity and recognition.
• Engage with government, service and policy stakeholders to provide evidence-based advice and to respond to identified needs, to create meaningful dialogue and outcomes that improve systems and supports for neurodevelopment and associated mental health.