Best Practices Continuum Track

 

The Best Practices Network in Canadian Higher Education (BP-Net) member’s portal features a library of Canadian post-secondary students’ mental health and well-being practices. Applicants may submit their practice to one or both best practice tracks for evaluation by trained reviewers: the best practice continuum track and optional health equity icon and/or the track for Indigenous-specific practices. For more information about the tracks and the icon, see the Best Practices Submission Guide.

Practices that meet the criteria in the best practice continuum track are rated into four best practice categories:  cutting-edge, emerging, promising, and best. These categories build on one another; criteria for categories on the left end of the continuum must be met before progressing to a category on the right end of the continuum.

How to get started on your submission

To get started, review the Best Practices Submission Guide for submission tips including how to select supporting documents to submit with your application, to learn more about the criteria for each category, and to determine the most appropriate category to apply (see Appendix C). The Submission Guide also contains a list of definitions and various other helpful resources.

Please complete questions through the practice category you are applying for.  For example, if applying as an emerging practice, you will complete the indicated questions for cutting-edge and all questions for emerging.  If you are applying for promising, you will complete the indicated questions for cutting-edge and emerging and all questions in promising. Appendix F in the Best Practices Submission Guide contains a supplementary list of considerations and examples to help you respond to the questions.

Optional:  You are encouraged to answer as many questions as you can in the next category because the reviewers might consider the practice for that category and provide feedback or request additional information to see if the practice meets the criteria. For example, if you are applying as an emerging practice, you are encouraged to complete as many questions as you can in the promising category.

Please reach out to the BP-Net (info@bp-net.ca) if you have any questions about the application process.

Best Practices Continuum Track Submission

Definitions

Below is a list of definitions of key terms that are used throughout the submission form.  Appendix B in the Best Practices Submission Guide provides a comprehensive list of definitions and their sources.

Equity:  Fairness in the distribution of health and the social determinants of health among people.  

Equity-deserving groups:  Populations within a community that are marginalized or are constrained by existing structures and practices.

Practice:  In this application, practice refers to, but is not limited to, a program, service, strategy, framework, or policy that supports post-secondary student mental health.  Other types of materials or resources will be considered (e.g., toolkits, curriculum, etc.).

Quality Improvement:  A process that includes identifying a problem, developing a plan, carrying out the plan, reflecting on whether this action was effective, and determining a course of action based on outcomes.  For the Best Practices Guide, quality improvement also includes ongoing management review and continuous improvement processes for policies, strategies, and health promotion programs.

Source:  In the foundation criteria throughout the evaluation categories, source refers to theories, guidelines, standards, frameworks, research, practices, or models that informed the practice.