Treatment options for people affected by schizophrenia have improved dramatically in the last 50 years but many people affected by schizophrenia do not receive the treatment they need. Of the over 360,000 Canadians affected by schizophrenia, only a third fully recover. People affected by schizophrenia die much earlier than the general population, mostly due to physical health problems. Good healthcare is the key to improving outcomes in schizophrenia, but people affected by schizophrenia often do not receive high-quality mental and physical health care. To make the healthcare system better, we need to first identify areas of low-quality care to target for change.

In this project, we will develop ways to measure the quality of healthcare in schizophrenia using large-scale (population-based) healthcare data. We will first do a scoping review of all quality indicators (measures of care) for schizophrenia. Then, we will determine how to measure quality indicators using available healthcare data.