Chris Perlman

Research interests

I conduct health services research for improving health systems for individuals with mental health conditions across the life span. Broadly, I’m interested in how we define and measure quality of care for individuals with mental health conditions and understanding how individual, organizational, and socio-environmental factors relate to health system quality. Much of this research involves the development of assessment and decision support tools for collecting information that can be used to better understand needs and support decisions at the point of care as well as for evaluating quality at multiple levels of decision making. Topics of particular focus include shared-decision making, mental healthcare in long term care residents, suicide, addiction assessment, and predicting health service utilization. 

Graduate supervision and student opportunities

I am currently not accepting applications from graduate students.

Graduate students working with Dr. Perlman have interests in:

• Health services research, particularly psychiatric services and long-term care
• Healthcare performance, equity and access
• Socio-environmental context and health system quality
• Assessment and outcome measurement

Graduate studies application details

Teaching interests

• Evaluation methods
• Health services and policy
• Quality and performance measurement
• Mental health systems and services

Education

BSc Psychology, Trent University

MSc Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo

PhD Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo

Selected publications

See Google Scholar for full list of publications.

Perlman, C.M., Hirdes, J.P., and Vigod, S. Psychiatric rehospitalization: Development of a person level indicator for care planning and quality assurance. Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. 2015; 17(4): doi:10.4088/PCC.15m01784

Martin L., Perlman, C.M. and Bieling P. Using the RAI-MH to support shared decision-making in mental health care. Healthcare Management Forum. 2015: 28(4); 163-166.

Vigod, S., Gruneir, A., Seitz, D., Herrmann, N., Fung, P., Kurdyak, P., Perlman, C. M. Lin, E., Taylor, V., and Rochon, P. READMIT: A clinical risk index to predict 30-day rehospitalization after discharge from acute psychiatric units, Journal of Psychiatry Research. 2015; 61, 205-213.

Perlman, C.M., Hirdes, J.P., Barbaree, H., Morris, J.N., Rabinowitz, T., and Fries, B. Development of Mental Health Quality Indicators (MHQIs) based on the interRAI Mental Health Assessments. BMC Health Services Research. 2013; 13:15

Neufeld, E., Hirdes, J.P., Perlman, C.M., Rabinowitz, T. Risk and protective factors associated with intentional self-harm among older community-residing home care clients in Ontario, Canada, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2015; 30 (10):1032-40.

Perlman, C.M., Neufeld, E., Martin, L., Goy, M., and Hirdes, J.P. Suicide Risk Assessment: A Resource Guide for Canadian Healthcare Organizations. Toronto, ON: Ontario Hospital Association and Canadian Patient Safety Institute: 2011. [ ISBN 9780886213350]

Selected professional networks

• interRAI
• Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research
• Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology