Guidelines and Toolkits

Tools to help you take charge of your brain health

To help you make informed decisions about your brain health, we produce guidelines and toolkits. Guidelines can be for clinicians or patients, and they outline the standard of care required by the province for treating brain disorders. Toolkits are resources that you can use to stay informed or be active about your brain health.

Physical Activity and Alzheimer's Disease Toolkit

An expert panel of researchers and not-for-profit leaders developed a consensus statement about the role of physical activity in the prevention and management of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults based on the report The Role of Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Alzheimer’s Disease—Implications for Ontario. Their input was used to create the Physical Activity and Alzheimer’s disease toolkit . The toolkit includes both an information pamphlet and quick tips guide.

Brain Disorders in Ontario Report

Considering both the personal and societal tolls of brain disorders, we partnered with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) to create a comprehensive snapshot of individual brain disorders throughout Ontario. The report encompasses 13 brain disorders and gives estimates for:

  • How many people are living with each disorder and their population data, such as age, sex, and income
  • The number of new cases identified each year
  • An overview of direct healthcare costs associated with each disorder

The CHOICE–D Patient And Family Guide To Depression Treatment

The CHOICE-D Guide aims to help individuals understand the evidence-based treatments that are available for managing depression. The guide includes information about medications, psychological treatments, brain stimulation treatments and complementary & alternative treatments.

This resource was created in partnership with people with lived experience of depression. All information was adapted from the CANMAT 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder, which were published in the Journal of Psychiatry in 2016.

Ontario Epilepsy Guidelines

The Provincial Guidelines Series is the result of a collaborative effort between Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO), the Epilepsy Implementation Task Force (EITF), and Provincial Neurosurgery Ontario (PNO). The EITF was established in June 2013 and was co-chaired by Dr. Carter Snead, Pediatric Neurologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and Brenda Flaherty, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Hamilton Health Sciences.

The EITF brought together leaders from within the epilepsy community to help develop a complete approach to epilepsy care in Ontario. The recommendations found in the guidelines series were developed to improve the quality and consistency of epilepsy care, and to ensure that all Ontarians with epilepsy have timely access to treatment, including surgical care.

Provincial Guidelines for Epilepsy

Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) in collaboration with Provincial Neurosurgery Ontario, and the Epilepsy Implementation Taskforce (EITF), has released a new resource for primary care physicians, neurologists, and any health care provider engaged in the care of patients with epilepsy. This set of guidelines aims to help with the diagnosis, treatment, and referral practices from the moment of a patient’s first seizure. For more information about the documents below, see the memorandum from CCSO.

Physical Activity and Alzheimer's Disease Toolkit

An expert panel of researchers and not-for-profit leaders developed a consensus statement about the role of physical activity in the prevention and management of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults based on the report The Role of Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Alzheimer’s Disease—Implications for Ontario. Their input was used to create the Physical Activity and Alzheimer’s disease toolkit . The toolkit includes both an information pamphlet and quick tips guide.