Government Monitoring of the Mental Health of Children in Canada: Five Surveys (Part II).

OBJECTIVE: Canadian governments produced 64 reports containing data about the mental health of children but no reports could adequately be called monitoring reports. Surveys sought to clarify definitions, challenges and processes that could help lead to regular reports.
METHOD: (Details in Part I). The 2006 survey clarified government current data use and future need, challenges to producing reports and the role of NGOs. The 2008 survey clarified the definition of reports, governments' most desired indicators, and national factors.
RESULTS: Governments wanted the data for policy making, program construction, priority setting and resource allocation. The most challenging difficulties were governments themselves: coordinating among departments, lack of funding, lack of an agency and lowered priority. Governments most wanted indicators of child functioning, population health and early identification. Reports needed to meet specific criteria for contents, indicator qualities, population characteristics and regularity.
CONCLUSIONS: Governments wanted a national strategy, national framework and agreement on a measuring agency. Good general agreement existed about reporting criteria. A partnership model may lead to quicker results given the difficulties within governments. NGOs and others need to continue collaborative advocacy. Monitoring is one of two steps that could help turn collections of services into self-regulating systems.