Operational Direction: Data Submission Requirements for the Mental Health and Addictions Sector

In March 2020, the Ontario government introduced the Roadmap to Wellness, the provincial strategy to build a more comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions system of care. Ontario Health’s Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence has a legislated mandate to implement the Roadmap. Driving quality improvement through data and digital is a key initiative with the aim of making it easier to deliver better care, report on performance and track the value of investments using robust and reliable data collection across the province. The focus of the data and digital initiative includes:

1. Creating a standard provincial data set to offer meaningful health system insights across the lifespan
2. Building a central repository of mental health and addictions data at Ontario Health
3. Having the ability to map the client journey for a complete picture of how mental health and addictions clients use the health care system
4. Reducing data burden for providers by eliminating manual data collection for provincial reporting
5. Providing the mental health and addictions sector with meaningful reporting and analytics to drive quality improvement
6. A long-term goal of providing real-time access to a range of electronic health records for clients and providers

Over the past two years, work to support this has included establishing a mental health and addictions provincial data set, building a central repository for receiving data, and working with health service providers to ensure we are able to receive data directly from point-of-care client management systems.

Moving forward, data submission will be required provincially for all community mental health and addictions health service providers receiving funding from the Ministry of Health or Ontario Health for adult community and/or outpatient mental health and addictions programs. This will support robust and reliable data collection across Ontario for provincial-level monitoring of services, evidence-informed planning and more equitable funding allocations, as well as facilitating reporting and analytics across the entire client journey. The purpose of this operational direction is to provide clear requirements about data submission expectations.

Operational Direction

For the purposes of this operational direction, the term “mental health and addictions health service providers” refers to all community mental health and addictions providers receiving funding from the Ministry of Health or Ontario Health for adult community and/or outpatient mental health and addictions programs, as well as youth addictions providers who receive funding for addictions functional centres and currently report into Catalyst.

Under this operational direction, all community mental health and addictions health service providers are required to submit data to Ontario Health. This will include:

1. Submission of the mental health and addictions provincial data set
2. Submission of client Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) numbers within the provincial data set, for most mental health and addictions functional centres (see Appendix for a list of exclusions), to ensure visibility of the entire client journey across all health care providers and sectors.

Implementation of data collection in alignment with this operational direction will occur in a phased approach. Health service providers will have two years to be compliant with an automatic electronic submission (compliant vendor/client management system) or provide independent submissions directly to Ontario Health in a way that meets all standards (see Appendix). In the interim, Ontario Health may require data submission through alternative means (secure file transfer) until compliance with a submission option is possible.

Data Submission Options for Mental Health and Addictions Health Service Providers

1. Direct submission through vendor client management systems
   • Health service providers submit data through a vendor client management system that is compliant with the provincial data set (see Appendix for list and an important note about Catalyst)
   • Health service providers may partner to become compliant (where appropriate)
2. Independent submission meeting all applicable data/security standards
   • Health service providers may independently or in partnership submit data directly to Ontario Health within all data/security standards (e.g. an automated Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources enabled submission route or manual secure file transfer data method approved by Ontario Health)
   • Examples of partnerships include Hospital Information System clusters |Ontario Health Teams | Shared Services | Regional Integrations

Note: Any health service provider that chooses to not submit data will put future funding at risk.

Timeline for Participation

Fiscal year 2025-26 (Year 1): By December 10, 2025

• Health service providers (in collaboration with Ontario Health) must determine how they will be and/or plan to become compliant.

• A standard template will be made available to all health service providers who have not yet started the PDS onboarding process to complete and submit to Ontario Health. This will be made available on the Mental Health and Addictions Provincial Data Set Resource Hub.
  • Note: Some health service providers included in this operational direction do not identify as Health Information Custodians (e.g. those delivering non-client identifying/low barrier services) and are therefore not able to form Data Sharing Agreements with Ontario Health. Ontario Health will help to facilitate partnership conversations for those organizations to be able to contribute to the provincial data set.

Fiscal year 2026-27 (Year 2): By December 10, 2026

• Health service providers will be expected to be compliant with one of the data submission options in accordance with the operational direction.

Not Included in this Operational Direction

Child and youth mental health core service providers will not be required to submit data to Ontario Health at this time. Select services providers are expected to begin submitting data in fiscal year 2025-26, in alignment with the release of the next iteration of the provincial data set 2.0, that will include an expanded range of data elements and options to allow for capture of a lifespan approach.

Indigenous health service providers will also not be required to submit data to Ontario Health at this time. Engagement and implementation are expected to begin in fiscal year 2025-26 and will align with Ontario Health’s Indigenous Data Governance Matters process.

A separate communication about data submission requirements will be issued in the future for these health service providers not included in this phase of the operational direction.

Questions

For questions about the operational direction, please contact mhaddi@ontariohealth.ca.

For all other information or inquiries about onboarding to the mental health and addictions provincial data set please visit or contact us through the provincial data set Resource Hub.

Appendix

Compliant Community Vendors / Client Management Systems

There are currently four client management systems that are compliant with the provincial data set:

1. CRMS (vendor)
   • CRMS (client management system)
2. EMHWare Solutions Inc (vendor)
   • EMHWare (client management system)
3. VitalHub Corp (vendor)
   • TREAT (client management system)
   • CaseWORKS (client management system)

Catalyst Compliance and Staged Screening and Assessment Tools

The Catalyst application, used to submit data to the Drug & Alcohol Treatment Information System (DATIS) for addictions programs, is not a compliant client management system and will not be made compliant.

Health service providers who use Catalyst will need to move to a compliant system or work with Ontario Health to determine the best way to become compliant with the operational direction (e.g., through partnerships with other organizations).

Health service providers who are successfully collecting the provincial data set through a compliant vendor client management system will no longer be required to submit data through the Catalyst application. Once a provider has gone through the Catalyst offboarding process and has implemented the required fields in their new system and are actively collecting this information for their clients, they are able to stop entering data into Catalyst. If you require information on how to offboard from Catalyst please contact the Catalyst Service Desk.

In addition, the Staged Screening and Assessment tools in use by addictions services providers and accessed via Catalyst will be decommissioned as of March 31, 2025. More information about screening and assessment practices for addictions services providers can be found in a memo previous released by the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence.

Hospital Information Systems

Ontario Health is currently piloting the ability to receive the provincial data set data using hospital information systems. If the pilots are successful, interested hospitals will be able to submit data using the following systems:

1. EPIC
2. MEDITECH
3. Cerner

Functional Centres NOT Requiring Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) Numbers

1. 7*50710 | COM Medical Resources - Psychiatrists
2. 7*50720 | COM Medical Resources - Other Medical Staff
3. 7*51576 | COM Crisis Intervention - Mental Health
4. 7*5507610 | COM Health Prom. /Education MH - Awareness
5. 7*5507630 | COM Health Promo. /Education MH - Women
6. 7*5507640 | COM Health Promo. /Education MH - Community Development
7. 7*5507810 | COM Health Prom./Educ. Addictions - Drug Awareness
8. 7*5507820 | COM Health Prom./Educ Addictions - Problem Gambling Awareness
9. 7*5507840 | COM Health Prom./Educ. Addictions - Community Development - Substance Abuse
10. 7*5517611 | COM Consumer Survivor Initiatives - Peer/Self Help
11. 7*5517612 | COM Consumer Survivor Initiatives - Alternative Businesses
12. 7*5517620 | COM Consumer Survivor Initiatives - Family Initiatives
13. 7*57010 | COM Information and Referral Service – General
14. 7*57076 | COM Information and Referral Service - Provincial - Mental Health
15. 7*5707811 | COM Information and Referral Service - Provincial - Substance Abuse
16. 7*5707812 | COM Information and Referral Service – Provincial –Problem Gambling
17. 7*31076 | AC Emergency - Mental Health Services

Please note that the collection of Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) numbers should not pose a barrier to care provision. Mental health and addictions clients unable or unwilling to provide an OHIP number associated with any functional centre will not be denied service. For more information on the collection of client OHIP numbers, please visit the provincial data set Resource Hub.

Ontario Common Assessment of Need (OCAN)

To deliver on the community mental health sector’s vision of standardized common assessment processes and practices, the Ontario Common Assessment of Need (OCAN) was implemented across the province.

There are three types of assessments: (1) Full, (2) Core + Self, (3) Core. The Full and Core + Self OCAN types are the standardized clinical assessments used in the community mental health sector and the continued use of these assessments is recommended. For Core, the recommendation is to replace the Core OCAN with the mental health and addictions provincial data set, as the information collected is similar. Additionally, in response to sector feedback, a new version of the OCAN (4.0) is available that aligns the common fields in the mental health and addictions provincial data set with the Ontario Common Assessment of Need to reduce the administrative burden of duplicate data entry. Staff would enter the information once and it would populate both datasets. 

If you have questions about the OCAN in your organizations, please visit:

• Community Care Resources & Support | Ontario Health
• PDS/OCAN FAQ
• or email assessmentprogram@ontariohealth.ca

Changes to Multi-Sector Service Accountability Agreements (MSAA)

1. Schedule B - Common Data Set for Community Mental Health Services

   The provincial data set will be replacing the mental health common data set (MH CDS), meaning health service providers will no longer be required to collect or submit the common data set. This is to be reflected in reporting requirements within the Multi-Sector Service Accountability Agreements (MSAA).

2. Schedule B - Drug and Alcohol Treatment Information System

   The provincial data set will be replacing the Drug & Alcohol Treatment Information System (DATIS). This is reflected in reporting requirements within the Multi-Sector Service Accountability Agreements. Once a provider has gone through the Catalyst offboarding process and has implemented the required fields in their new system and are actively collecting this information for their clients, they are able to stop entering data into Catalyst.

Sector Supports

Several resources, tools and stakeholder supports are in place to help health service providers to submit the provincial data set in accordance with the operational direction.

Resources

• One time funding to support client management system migrations has been made available this fiscal year, with a call for expressions of interest released in September 2024. Any future funding opportunities will be made available to all interested/eligible health service providers and can be found on the provincial data set Resource Hub.

• Ontario Health Insurance Plan Card readers are available to support the collection of client Ontario Health Insurance Plan numbers. Community mental health and addictions Health Service Providers that have expressed interest in implementing the provincial data set can contact PDS_support@ontario.cmha.ca for more information about card readers.

Provincial Supports

• All health service providers will be supported through the onboarding process end-to-end by a case manager. Case managers will provide:
  • information sessions for health service providers about the provincial data set and answer questions on how to get started,
  • coordination support for all necessary paperwork, legal agreements and access to resources,
  • status updates for providers to ensure onboarding is on track,
  • answers to questions before, during and after onboarding,
  • support to work closely with compliant vendors to intake and escalate technical issues and questions.
• The mental health and addictions provincial data set Resource Hub houses provincial tools and resources to support onboarding, such as the technical and user-friendly data dictionary, Frequently Asked Questions and a provincial data set mapping tool.
• A Data Reference Group is available to support data validation and creation of provincial data quality resources. This group is intended for health service providers who have been submitting to the mental health and addictions provincial data set for at least three months. Interested health service providers can contact mhaddi@ontariohealth.ca.

Data Champions and Communities of Practice

Key system stakeholders act as “Data Champions” to help support local adoption of the Mental Health and Addictions Provincial Data Set, which includes:

• Mental Health Partners (for organizations using a hospital information system).
  • For more information, please email PDS-Support@theroyal.ca
• Addictions & Mental Health Ontario (AMHO)
  • For more information, please email pds@amho.ca
• Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario (CMHA Ontario)
  • For more information, please email PDS_support@ontario.cmha.ca

The Data Champions will be hosting three vendor specific Communities of Practice and one general community of practice to support provincial data set implementation every Friday from 12-1pm EST until March 2025. Interested health service providers can register using the following links:

1. Session 1 (first Friday of the month): CRMS
2. Session 2 (second Friday of the month): Treat and CaseWORKS
3. Session 3 (third Friday of the month): EMHware
4. Session 4 (fourth Friday of the month): Organizations using any client management system, are unable to attend a vendor-specific session or have general questions about PDS implementation

Need this information in an accessible format? 1-877-280-8538, TTY 1-800-855-0511, info@ontariohealth.ca. Document disponible en français en contactant info@ontariohealth.ca