CAN/HSO 22004:2023

Purpose This standard provides guidance to organizational leaders and members of dedicated mental health teams and addictions teams working in health and social service organizations that provide direct care to people seeking mental health and addictions services. This standard specifies the accountabilities of organizational leaders and members of dedicated mental health teams and addictions teams to deliver high-quality, client-centred mental health or addictions services that ensure continuity of care for clients across the lifespan. This standard does not prescribe a particular approach or intervention. Instead, it focuses on how dedicated mental health teams and addictions teams should provide care to meet the holistic needs of clients across the lifespan, regardless of diagnoses. Applicability This standard applies to organizational leaders and members of dedicated mental health teams and addictions teams working in health and social service organizations across all care settings. In this standard, we sometimes use the expression mental health and addictions recognizing that clients may experience mental health symptoms or addictions symptoms or both. Because clients often experience mental health and addictions symptoms at the same time, and because supports for these symptoms are similar, some references to the two areas have been combined to refer to the teams, care, services, resources, and organizations that support them. The defined client population for this standard is people of any age who are receiving mental health services or addictions services or both from health and social service organizations. Clients may receive care in various settings. For example, care settings may include environments in which teams provide acute care, ambulatory care, home care, community care, forensic care, crisis services, withdrawal management and detox services, or addictions care.