Education & Outreach

CHOICE-D Project


What is the CHOICE-D Project?

The CHOICE-D (CANMAT Health Options for Integrated Care & Empowerment in Depression) Project was developed to create a consumer guide to depression treatment options in Canada. This project is a partnership between the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatment (CANMAT), the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario (MDAO), and the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND).  This project is primarily funded by the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI).

The CHOICE-D Guide is now available. Access it here

Also, the process of creating the CHOICE-D guide has been recently published in the journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 2019. 

New publication: Fonseka, T. M., Pong, J. T., Kcomt, A., Kennedy, S. H., & Parikh, S. V. (2019). Collaborating with individuals with lived experience to adapt CANMAT clinical depression guidelines into a patient treatment guide: The CHOICE‐D co‐design process. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.  Read article here

Who leads this initiative?

The CHOICE-D Project is led by Dr. Sagar Parikh (CANMAT) and Mr. Andrew Kcomt (MDAO). The project involves a team of writers with lived experience of depression. Meet the team below.

 

What are the main goals of this project?

 

Engage Lived Experience Experts

  • The CHOICE-D Guide was written by people affected by depression for people affected by depression, including patients, caregivers and peer support workers. By engaging the lived experience community, the goal is for the end product to be relevant to those who need the information most.

Provide Accessible, Evidence-based Information

  • Information in the CHOICE-D Guide is based on the CANMAT 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder. The CANMAT clinical guidelines were published as a series of seven articles in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry by a team of academic and clinical leaders in depressive, bipolar and anxiety disorders. The technical language in the clinical guidelines has been adapted into plain language to create an easy-to-understand version written for a wide audience.

Inspire Patient-Centered Care and Shared Decision-Making

  • The CHOICE-D Guide is an educational tool that aims to raise awareness and knowledge about depression treatment options. By increasing access to this information, the project encourages consumers to engage in shared decision-making with healthcare professionals and to take an active role in their care. 

Multiple Stakeholder Review

  • The contents of the guide have been reviewed by many stakeholders, including patients, advocates, peer support organizations, researchers, healthcare providers, and government agencies. Their feedback has been integrated into the final draft of the CHOICE-D Guide to create the most accessible and informative guide possible.

 

Meet the Team

Contributors

  • Petra Dreiser
  • Melanie Guenette
  • Lucie Langford
  • Claire LeSage
  • Barbara Marwood
  • Servane Mason
  • Adam Wheeler

Project Leads

  • Dr. Sagar Parikh, CAN-BIND Co-Investigator; Knowledge Translation Platform Lead
  • Andrew Kcomt, MDAO Knowledge Translation Manager

Professional Support and Consultation

  • Dr. Sidney Kennedy, CAN-BIND Principal Investigator
  • Dr. Raymond Lam, CAN-BIND Co-Investigator
  • Ann Marie MacDonald, MDAO CEO
  • Trehani Fonseka, CAN-BIND
  • Janice Pong, CAN-BIND