Michelle Hamilton-Page*, Centre For Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada Track: Practice Presentation Topic: The nature and dynamics of social networks in health Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2013-09-25

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If institutional social maturity can be defined as organizations “empowering their full workforce to use social technologies” (Forrester, 2011.) then the health sector has been relatively slow to grow up or embrace “social ways of working” (Monitor Institute, 2009.) In 2011 the Change Foundation and Innovation Cell conducted research into “Using Social Media to Improve Healthcare Quality” (Change Foundation, 2011) drawing on the experience of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest mental health and addictions teaching healthcare organization as a field partner. The Change Foundation research envisioned the creation of a system that would develop an integrated and innovative approach using social media to accelerate the path towards more patient-centred care. In 2012 CAMH dedicated resources to plan, implement and evaluate social media solutions across the organization.

This presentation will examine the innovative social media policy and strategy developed by CAMH to create an organizational social network that goes well beyond a centralized command and control model - one that engages in collaborative social networking for knowledge transfer, research and education, and patient and family engagement. Drawing on CAMH as a case study the presentation will outline emerging best practices in hospitals developing multiple social media channels across programs and projects, and discuss the barriers and challenges to adopting this decentralized approach to opening up social media engagement within healthcare settings. This session will share the foundations of our approach at CAMH, key learnings and strategies for application in an academic healthcare setting and engage conference participants in sharing their experience to deepen our collective understanding of the role of social media to “advance a more responsive, patient-centred healthcare system” (Change Foundation, 2011).