Awards

Alberta Health Services named recipient of 2021 Award of Excellence in Mental Health Quality Improvement

April 12, 2021

The Canadian College of Health Leaders is proud to announce that Alberta Health Services’ AMH LOCUS Implementation Team was named recipient of the 2021 Award of Excellence in Mental Health Quality Improvement.

The Addiction and Mental Health (AMH) Services in the Edmonton Zone of Alberta Health Services has a vision for a system that is responsive to the needs of individuals seeking help. To support this vision they have implemented a clinical decision support tool called the Level of Care Utilization System (LOCUS). LOCUS intentionally organizes AMH services in a systematic way by supporting clinical judgement, providing a common language, and encouraging standardization of decisions about appropriate services by providing information that is used to match services with client’s needs, while also ensuring client choice.

Client satisfaction data collected pre and post-implementation of LOCUS (2017/2020) shows significant improvements in many areas, and LOCUS data is also extremely valuable in supporting service planning, process standardization, resource allocation, and numerous quality improvement initiatives.

The Award of Excellence in Mental Health and Quality Improvement honours a hospital, health authority, community based mental health and addictions program/service, or a leader in the field that demonstrates evidence-informed and sustained quality improvements (QI) in the area of mental health and addictions.

The award is sponsored by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), an organisation that leads the development and dissemination of innovative programs and tools to support the mental health and wellness of Canadians. Through its unique mandate from the Government of Canada, the MHCC supports federal, provincial, and territorial governments as well as organizations in the implementation of sound public policy.

This award is part of our CCHL National Awards Program and will be presented at the virtual Honouring Health Leadership event on June 16, 2021.

For further information and/or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Christian Coulombe
Director, Marketing and Communications 
Canadian College of Health Leaders
613-235-7219, ext. 213
ccoulombe@cchl-ccls.ca