Frequently Asked Questions

ECHO stands for Extensions for Community Healthcare Outcomes.

ECHO connects Health care providers with an inter-professional specialist team through periodic videoconferencing sessions. The sessions include didactic lectures and interactive discussion of de-identified patient cases. Healthcare providers who attend ECHO gain enhanced skills and confidence in managing complex mental health conditions experienced by children and youth safely and effectively.

ECHO Child and Youth Mental Health is an online medical education program operated by CHEO, that targets community healthcare professionals to provide support to children and youth requiring mental health care at no cost. By providing a convenient online environment to share and discuss best-practices, community healthcare providers are empowered to safely and effectively care for paediatric patients with mental health needs.

There are many benefits to registering for ECHO Ontario Child and Youth Mental Health including:

• Increasing your knowledge about child and youth mental health topics and best practices through our didactic presentations and case-based learning.
• Learning about services for patients and families in your areas from our System. Navigators. This System Navigator role is unique to ECHO Ontario Child and Youth Mental Health team.
• Access to curated tools, resources, instruments, and articles our Hub Specialists provide, including access to YouTube links with our recorded didactic presentations.
• Receive Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for sessions you attend.
• Join a Community of Practice you can refer back to with questions.
• There is no cost to Primary Care Providers to participate in our program.

Our target group for our 24 week program is Primary Care Providers, including any Ontario family physicians, pediatricians, nurse practitioners (NP), nurses (RN), or physician assistants (PA) or anyone working on a team with Primary Care Providers (e.g. Social worker from a family health team) providing non-specialist psychiatric care to children and youth, particularly in underserved areas.

Please note that our Special Interest Sessions are open to everyone everywhere!

Our ECHO Sessions use Zoom Technology as our videoconferencing program. It is user-friendly, requires minimal set-up, and has no administrator privileges to download. You can connect through PC, Mac, iOS, Tablet, Android or phone.

You will need:

• A computer with a webcam, microphone and a stable internet connection OR
• A phone with internet or data and a camera to join the session

Contact us if you have any questions or require additional support. For example if you would like to do a test run prior to your first session.

One of the goals of each cycle is to foster a Community of Practice and we work towards this goal by encouraging participation of all kinds: Learning Partners will ask questions, offer their experience and insights, and share how they would approach a case or what might be helpful to consider. In creating a Community of Practice, we create a referrals network and each deepen our knowledge and skill base.

In each cycle, Learning Partners are asked to sign up for a session in which they would briefly present a de-identified case from their own practice, which may or may not relate to that session’s topic. Once the case has been presented, the Learning Partners and the Hub Experts discuss different approaches to support this case.

During the session:

• Mute your microphone at all times except when speaking
• Keep your camera on and pointed at you or your team.
• Seeing each other helps to build the ECHO community
• Do not share your screen
• This is a safe learning environment - we encourage non-judgement of other participants
• Feel free to eat your lunch

During the roll-call ECHO staff record your attendance each session. At the end of each cycle, ECHO staff collates your attendance. You will receive a certificate with your total credits by email. This way, you do not need to keep track - we do this for you.