Abstract
The Tourette OCD Alberta Network (TOAN) supports mental health therapists to improve the delivery of care to patients with Tourette syndrome (TS) and OCD in Alberta. We evaluated the professional development needs of health care workers to develop a continuing professional development (CPD) webinar series. Health care workers demonstrated an urgent need to access a CPD program grounded in evidenced based knowledge about TS and OCD. While 80% of health care workers treated children with TS and OCD, 50% had no formal training. A curriculum consisting of a series of twelve live, online webinars was developed and delivered between September 2020 and June 2021, covering a range of clinical topics. The webinars were attended on average by 63 attendees, with the outcome of a positive knowledge gain. In future, the educational program will need to reflect the ongoing developing clinical understanding of TS and OCD.
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This work was funded by the Maternal Newborn Child and Youth Strategic Clinical Network of Alberta Health.
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JF and TP drafted and reviewed the manuscript. DM, FM, and GW reviewed and revised the manuscript.
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Fletcher, J., Martino, D., MacMaster, F. et al. The Tourette OCD Alberta Network: Development of a Continuing Professional Development Program for Community Based Mental Health Therapists. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01503-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01503-2