Winner of the 2022-23
MHRC-SHRF Solutions: Innovation Grant

Read about the winning project, awarded $49,986, of our 2022-23 Solutions: Innovation Grant, and how it seeks to address the diverse needs of the people of Saskatchewan.

Funded in partnership with the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.

The MHRC-SHRF Innovation Grant is part of the SHRF Solutions Program, wherein collaborative research is funded to address Saskatchewan’s pressing health challenges.

The Virtual Specialist and the Travelling Nurse Practitioner: A novel consultation model for children and their families to improve access to developmental pediatric and child mental health care.

Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Susan Petryk and Dr. Jill Bally, University of Saskatchewan

Waitlists in Saskatchewan to see a specialist in developmental pediatrics and mental health care are long with few specialists available. Patients and their families live all over this large province yet the specialists are in Regina and Saskatoon.

This project will develop and test a way that will not only decrease wait times but also bring the specialist right to the patients in their own communities.

The researchers have designed a process where a specialist sees the patient and caregiver by video facilitated by a nurse practitioner (NP) who is present in person. They will ask caregivers what they liked or disliked about the process and use their ideas to make the process better for future use.

Through this research, Dr. Petryk and Dr. Bally will continually improve the process to make it as simple and streamlined as possible for the patients and families, and the professionals, while maintaining the same quality as the standard consultation process used now.

With the NP’s support in gathering background information before seeing the specialist and doing the post-consultation work, the specialist’s time can be minimized, freeing the specialist to see more patients and shortening waitlists.

This model of care will be tested on some of the most complex patients with coexisting developmental disabilities and mental health concerns. If the model is effective, it could easily be used for patients who are less complex with only a developmental disability or a mental health concern.