Paula Cloutier is a Research Associate in Psychiatric and Mental Health Research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). She received her Masters of Arts in experimental psychology from Carleton University in 1991. Her current research activities focus on pediatric mental health service research, and youth self-harm.
Related News
Research Projects
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Closing the Referral Loop: Piloting a Clinical Pathway Between Primary Care and Community-Based Mental Health and Addictions Services
21/01/2024
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Validating existing clinical cut-points for the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a large sample of Canadian children and youth.
01/09/2023
This study validated the existing British SDQ cut-points in a large sample of Canadian children and youth and developed Canadian-specific cut-points using a distributional approach and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The Canadian-specific clinical cut-points (90th percentile) using the distributional approach demonstrated higher specificity than the ROC curve derived cut-points. For this reason, the distributional cut-points have better population-based utility. Both the existing British and the Canadian-specific clinical cut-points for the total difficulties score met the threshold for clinical utility to predict mental health diagnosis.
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A pediatric virtual care evaluation framework and its evolution using consensus methods
17/08/2023
The use of virtual care has increased dramatically in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet evidence is lacking regarding the impact of virtual care on patient outcomes, particularly in pediatrics. A standardized evaluation approach is required to support the integration of virtual care into pediatric health care delivery programs. The objective of this work was to develop a comprehensive and structured framework for pediatric virtual care evaluation. This framework is intended to engage and guide care providers, health centres, and stakeholders towards the development of a standardized approach to the evaluation of pediatric virtual care.
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A Primary Care Mental Health Pathway for Children and Youth: A Mental Health Services Quality Improvement Initiative in Ontario
07/06/2023
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Meeting the service needs of youth with and without a self-reported mental health diagnosis during COVID-19
01/05/2023
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced multiple, co-occurring stressors for youth, such as drastic changes to their daily routines, social interactions, and educational conditions (1,2). Relative to other life stages, adolescence is a critical period of social and emotional development (3), and one in which mental health (MH) and substance use disorders are more likely to emerge in the face of overwhelming change (4). For many youth, it seems that the MH impacts from COVID-19 have been detrimental (5–8). For others, their MH may not have changed, or even improved, due to fewer social or school-related pressures or increases in family bonding (9–12). For youth with existing MH concerns, diagnoses or risk factors, the MH effects of the pandemic may have been especially harmful (9,13,14), particularly for those whose access to services has been discontinued or disrupted (13).