This story is part of a series through the Social Innovation Impact Initiative. As part of the SII Initiative, SI Canada aims to illuminate how social innovators across Canada are putting the principles of collaboration, equity, and systems thinking into practice — and in doing so, helping create the conditions for lasting change.
The Information Sharing Framework (ISF) is a policy innovation designed to end the “fragmentation” that forces people in crisis to reshare their story with each new service provider. By reframing privacy laws as tools for coordination rather than barriers to care, it enables seamless, consent-based communication across health and community systems. This story demonstrates how place-based coordination can both improve outcomes for service users and scale up into broader systems change.
Guest post by Tessa Penich, Coalition Director with Converge Mental Health Coalition.
The Information Sharing Framework (ISF) is a policy innovation designed to address one of the most persistent challenges in our mental health system: fragmentation. Here’s an example of how this plays out.
A 28-year-old woman is experiencing anxiety and depression, which is worsened by abuse from her partner. She calls a domestic violence helpline and tells her story to a crisis worker, who connects her with a local shelter. She arrives at the shelter and shares her story again with an intake worker. The next day, her caseworker connects her with a community organization that provides free counselling. She completes an intake with the new agency, sharing her story again, and gets an initial appointment with a counsellor. The appointment goes well, but when it’s time for a follow up the counsellor is no longer working there. The organization offers to connect her with someone new, but she’s worried they’ll just leave again. Meanwhile, she is referred to a community housing agency, repeating her story again. Next, she tries a publicly funded mental health clinic, seeing a new counsellor and sharing her story again. The counsellor recommends she see a doctor and ask about medication. She doesn’t have a family doctor, so she goes to a walk-in clinic for help, repeating her story again. After she moves from the shelter into transitional housing, she’s assigned a new support worker through a different agency and must share her story again. When she experiences a mental health crisis the next month and goes to the emergency room for care, she again must repeat her story from the beginning.
The whole process is exhausting, demoralizing, and re-traumatizing. None of the service providers are speaking to each other. Each retelling asks individuals to revisit painful experiences, all while the system struggles to see the full picture. The frustration is further compounded for people simultaneously seeking help outside of the mental health system, such as for domestic violence, settlement, housing, or income supports. At any point, they may disengage. This isn’t because support isn’t available, but because the system itself is too difficult to navigate. This same pattern plays out for youth navigating mental health and substance use supports, and for families trying to coordinate care across systems. Meanwhile, service providers are facing growing demand, limited resources, and non-harmonized privacy legislation that can make coordinating services feel impossible.
The information sharing framework: enabling systems to work together
Developed in Alberta by Converge Mental Health Coalition, the ISF emerged with input from organizations who work collaboratively across government, health, and community, grounded in a shared recognition that fragmentation is a systems design issue. The framework is a practical guide for how organizations across physical and mental health, social, justice, and community services can work together to share information safely and appropriately. Working within existing privacy legislation, it enables responsible, consent-based information sharing that prioritizes continuity of care and client safety. It also recognizes that there may be circumstances where information needs to be shared notwithstanding consent, such as when there is an imminent risk of harm. This reduces fragmentation, decreases bias in decision-making, and helps care feel more connected, coordinated, and human. It also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).
Central to this work is an innovative shift in how we understand privacy. Privacy legislation is often interpreted as restrictive, leading organizations to limit how they collect and use personal and health information. However, privacy policies meant to protect clients’ personal data may inadvertently make systems navigation harder – for example, by requiring them to retell their story repeatedly. Further, the services provided by one organization often only address a small part of a person’s broader life challenges, and the information gathered may be useful to other organizations supporting that person.
“The core idea is that we are as responsible for what we don’t share as what we do share.”
The ISF reframes how organizations understand privacy and risk, encouraging providers to also think about the risks of not sharing client data when it would benefit that person’s care, safety, and well-being. The core idea is that we are as responsible for what we don’t share as what we do share. In addition to shifting mental models around privacy and risk, the ISF also helps organizations build the policies and practices necessary for safe and effective collaboration with others. Anyone can access the framework and its associated resources for free on Converge’s website.
From framework to implementation: connecting care across systems
Provincially, policy advocacy linked to the ISF has informed changes in Alberta’s privacy legislation, making it easier for organizations to work together and share information. First, organizations can now share personal information in a wider range of situations where someone might be at risk of harm, not just the most serious cases. Second, more types of organizations can now share information when delivering common and integrated programs and services, now including healthcare organizations and providers. Converge continues to advocate for modernized legislation that protects individual privacy while allowing for greater system coordination.
Following its successes, the ISF is being adapted for other provinces, first in Ontario and now in British Columbia. What started in Alberta has evolved into a scalable approach to systems change, influencing policy and practice across jurisdictions. At its core, this work is about ensuring people are met with understanding the first time they access mental health supports, and don’t have to keep repeating their story to get the help they need. It’s also about building trust within our systems – both between service providers and with the individuals and families they serve.
How can we demonstrate the impact of social innovation in advancing the SDGs? This profile is part of the Social Innovation Impact initiative that highlights innovators across Canada tackling complex challenges and driving positive change for people and the planet.
This project, in partnership with The Winnipeg Boldness Project and Maison de l’innovation sociale (MIS), is funded by the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals Funding Program.
