The program, Health Care Access Research in Developmental Disabilities (H-CARDD), aims to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of individuals with developmental disabilities through improved health-care policy and services.

H-CARDD is directed by Yona Lunsky from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and the University of Toronto. Weiss, the Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders Treatment and Care Research in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health, is a member of the program鈥檚 core team, which includes scientists, clinicians and policymakers from across Ontario.

Jonathan Weiss

Individuals with developmental disabilities are one of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations when it comes to accessing healthcare. The goal of H-CARDD is to reduce disparities in health outcomes of Ontarians with developmental disabilities.

Four vulnerable subgroups will be examined over the next three years. The four subgroups are as follows:

• Aging Adults with co-leads Lynn Martin of Lakehead University and H茅l猫ne Ouellette-Kuntz of Queen's University
• Women with co-leads Virginie Cobigo of the University of Ottawa and Simone Vigod of Women鈥檚 College Hospital.
• Youth Transitioning to Adult Services with Weiss and Barry Isaacs of Surrey Place Centre
• Individuals with 鈥淒ual Diagnosis鈥� with Rob Balogh of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Elizabeth Lin of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Researchers already know that youth with developmental disabilities visit emergency rooms more often than others and have higher rates of psychiatric hospitalization than youth without disabilities. What is needed is more research at the individual and system level on the factors that lead to these high rates and that is what Weiss and Isaacs will be doing.

Young people with developmental disabilities have difficulty in transitioning into adult health care services. For those who need mental health services, it is even more difficult especially with an already difficult to navigate health-care system. That can lead to a worsening of issues.

鈥淯nderstanding patterns of service use as adolescents with developmental disabilities transition into adulthood can help us to identify barriers and gaps in the health service system,鈥� says Weiss. 鈥淒oing so can lead to improved primary care and addressing problems before they become severe.鈥�

H-CARDD鈥檚 program of research will provide new information that profiles vulnerable developmental disability subgroups and will translate research into action by facilitating the uptake of evidence-based practices in primary and emergency care.

H-CARDD鈥檚 partners include the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Surrey Place Centre, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Queen鈥檚 University, 91亚色, Lakehead University, Sunnybrook Hospital, and Women鈥檚 College Hospital.

For more information about the H-CARDD program, contact Julie Klein-Geltink, H-CARDD manager, at julie.kleingeltink@camh.ca.

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The award is, in part, based on the researcher鈥檚 record of early career achievement. For Weiss, that encompasses the research on developmental disabilities that he鈥檚 conducted over the last three or more聽years. He is one of two recipients of the award this year, handed out by the CPA.

Right: Jonathan Weiss

鈥淭he award is really recognition for the type of research I鈥檝e been able to do prior to and since beginning at 91亚色,鈥� says Weiss, a clinical psychologist in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been great to be recognized by psychologists, not just in the field of聽developmental disabilities, but by colleagues from other fields.鈥�

He is co-investigator for three Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded projects, two of which look at children with developmental disabilities and the third at understanding pathways to emergency health care for adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Weiss also received a three-year New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation in 2010 to study people with developmental disabilities, who make up between one and聽three per cent of the Canadian population. At least one in three people with developmental disabilities will have mental health problems or serious challenging behaviours as an adolescent or young adult, says Weiss.

His goal for this project is to learn what leads a young person with developmental disability to have mental health problems, and how it is related to their service use, their skills, academic success and family functioning.

For more information about the President鈥檚 New Researcher Award, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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