To date, the Calgary Health Region Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program (CAMHP) has triaged 23,883 referrals of which 14,034 have been enrolled and 9,849 have been referred at the time of triage to usually non-affiliated community-based programs or to the primary care referral source with recommendations. This paper reports on the results of a survey of those not accepted directly to CAMHP services in order to examine whether or not the recommendations made to the families seeking services were perceived as being appropriate.

A survey was developed and a list of those who had been declined service and given recommendations to seek service in the community was generated and these were contacted based on random selection.

Highlights include that a rating of 3.5/10 with respect to being satisfied with the service received on a scale of 1-10, with one being the best and ten being the worst. Additionally, when asked if AMH matched an appropriate mental health service to meet their child's needs, respondents replied Yes (56/69), No (11/69), Don't Remember (1/69), or Did not utilize the service (1/69).

The vast majority of clients surveyed were satisfied and felt that the recommendations made by AMH were appropriate. Implications for Practice or Policy AMH services appear to be appropriately aware of and linked with community serves to the extent that clients report a high level of contextual endorsement of the recommendations that are made.