Building a Framework for Supporting Meaningful Family Caregiver Engagement was a collaborative research project led by caregiver advisor Cynthia Clark from March 2020 to August 2021.
Our team of caregiver advisors, service providers and researchers conducted a needs assessment to acquire a better understanding of how to build and maintain meaningful collaborative partnerships between health providers and family caregiver advisors, within the context of mental health, substance use and concurrent disorders. We then used this information to determine what knowledge products to feature on this website, for the benefit of mental health organizations across Ontario.
For more information about the project and our methods, please see the following reports:
Read the Report
Our methods, comprehensive survey results and conclusions.
Environmental Scan
Before we began to co-create material for this website, we conducted an environmental scan of available knowledge products.
Lessons Learned
Throughout this unique project, we learned a few lessons about collaboration that we feel may be of value to others.
View the Infographic
Five measures of meaningful family caregiver advisor engagement.
Research Contact
The Royal is proud to support and enable research that inspires hope, access and new possibilities for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders and their loved ones. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a caregiver advisor or supporting future research projects in the area of engaging caregiver advisors, please contact The Royal by email.
Next: Readiness
Building a Framework for Supporting Meaningful Family Caregiver Engagement
We set out to understand how to build and maintain meaningful collaborative partnerships with family caregiver advisors at mental health and substance use disorder organizations in Ontario, as well as to co-design knowledge products for organizations seeking to engage family caregiver advisors. Learn more about our guiding research and co-design process, About us.

Funding for this project was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and The Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health with The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research.



(c) Copyright. Building a Framework for Supporting Meaningful Family Caregiver Engagement, 2021. All rights reserved.