Claire De Souza

Project Investigator, SickKids Research Institute

Dr. De Souza is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Project Investigator with the SickKids Research Institute. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She is the Deputy (Past) President of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CACAP), a board member of the Canadian Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, a founding chair of the Pediatric Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in Canada network; CACAP representative on the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Physically Ill Child Committee and past President of the Medical Staff Association at SickKids. She has contributed to the SickKids Mental Health Strategy and is a member of the Mental Health Literacy Committee and Somatization Pathway Working Group. 

At U of T, Dr. De Souza earned a Bachelor of Science degree with high distinction, a medical degree with Honours and completed a Psychiatry residency. She has subspecialty certification in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has been involved with optimizing service delivery through programmatic changes and protocol development to improve care for children and adolescents with physical and mental health conditions, including those with somatization.  She has collaborated on care pathways with colleagues in North America. She is actively involved in education and has collaborated on courses in communication and clinician well-being. She has presented at local, national and international conferences as well as at family education days.  She received the CACAP Excellence in Education Award in 2017 and the Association for Academic Psychiatry Junior Faculty Award in 2012.

Education

• 2002: FRCP(C), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada (Field of Study: Psychiatry)
• 1997: MD, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada (Field of Study: Medicine)

1. Becker, J.E., Smith, J.R., De Souza, C., Hazen, E.P. (2023). Pediatric Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry. In: Tasman et al. Tasman’s Psychiatry. Springer, Cham.
2. De Souza C, Davidson J, Amirali L, Cohen J. Parliamentary Brief for the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD). Concerns & Considerations with applying MAiD for Persons Whose Sole Underlying Medical Condition is a Mental Disorder to Mature Minors. May 2022,
3. De Souza C. CACAP Brief to Minister of Mental Health & Addictions: A Call to Action in Support of Child and Youth Mental Health in Canada 2022.
4. De Souza C. A Call to Action in Support of Child and Youth Mental Health in Canada 2022. CACAP website
5. Desjardins L, Hancock K, Szatmari P, Alexander S, Shama W, De Souza C, Mills D, Abla O, Barrera M. Protocol for mapping psychosocial screening to resources in pediatric oncology: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies 2021; 7(1)

See a full list of Claire De Souza's publications.