Decommissioning of Staged Screening and Assessment Tools – DATIS communication
As of November 14, 2024, per Ontario Health’s Staged Screening and Assessment (SS&A) Decommissioning memo, completion of the Staged Screening and Assessment tools is optional and cannot be used as a requirement for individuals to access bed-based services for substance use. The process and support for the assessment tool will be fully decommissioned by March 31, 2025. For further details please visit Ontario Health Memos and Operational Directions
This communication is intended for service providers who are current and past users of the SS&A tools (GAIN Q3 MI ONT, GAIN SS, POSIT, MMS) in Ontario.
Important information related to Catalyst:
- The GAIN Q3 MI ONT will continue to be accessible through Catalyst until March 31, 2025.
- The GAIN-SS (CAMH modified) is provincially licensed by the MHA CoE and will continue to be available through March 31, 2026. Organizations using Catalyst can continue to access this tool until this date.
- The second stage screeners (MMS, POSIT) are available in the public domain should organizations choose to continue using them after March 31, 2025.
- Implementation and usage data pertaining to the SS&A tools that is currently available to HSPs in DATIS’ SAP reporting portal will continue to be available until March 31, 2025.
- Instructions for accessing SS&A summary reports can be found Here
- Client assessment data from the GAIN Q3 will continue to be available from the Chestnut Health System via the GAIN ABS application until March 31, 2025. Organizations will need to ensure that they have saved or printed any completed assessments for their clients in alignment with data retention policies and practices related to obligations as health information custodians (HIC).
- After March 31, 2025, client assessment data will be fully purged from the Chestnut Health System database, so all relevant assessments must be downloaded before this date.
- Completed assessments cannot be saved in bulk and must be downloaded individually by client. Instructions for downloading client assessments can be found Here
If you have further questions, please contact the Catalyst Service Desk.
If your organization would like to explore initiation of a contract directly with Chestnut Heath System after March 31, 2025, please contact Nick Scherrer (njscherrer@chestnut.org).
The Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence understands that providers will have questions and may need support to transition away from this mandate. More details and registration for the CoE webinar can be found Here.
