Canadian Institute of Health Research Archives | Research & Innovation

91��ɫ U team receives close to $1M in funding for mental-health care virtual community for students

muellerm — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 10:00:00 +0000

A 91��ɫ research team will receive more than $898,000 in funding and in-kind contributions from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and industry partners to research and develop support for the mental health needs of students through a (MVC).

Farah Ahmad

“The goal is to improve the mental health of students, in relation to experiences of stress, anxiety or depression through a supportive online community,” says Professor from the School of Health Policy & Management. El Morr, Professor of the School of Health Policy & Management and Professor of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science are the principal investigators for the study.

“We aim to develop a student-centred virtual platform to meaningfully engage them in learning about available resources, self-help modules and mindfulness practice,” said Ahmad.

As Ritvo points out: “Online mindfulness programs have been demonstrated to have mental health benefits equal to in-person programs.”

The researchers think more students may seek help online now as many are reluctant to pursue in-person help because of the stigma associated with mental health problems.

“I am excited to see Canadian ingenuity at work to support the health of Canadians. These projects have the potential to make high quality mental health services more available to the young Canadians who need them, and they are also making great strides for the delivery of increased home care services. We have the talent, the intelligence and the passion in Canada to make the field of eHealth one of our (many) strengths,” said the Minister of Health Jane Philpott.

Paul Ritvo

The 91��ɫ team will conduct a randomized controlled trial, recruiting 600 students over three semesters at 91��ɫ. The students will be divided into three groups. The first will use a MVC platform for two weeks; the second, an eight-week, in-person group-based mindfulness program using cognitive behavioural therapy; and the third will be placed in a wait-list control group. The researchers will compare the groups for impact on mental health, engagement and costs.

“Through this funding, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is helping our researchers grow their innovative research programs and contribute to scientific knowledge that will lead to improved health resources for students,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation.

Funding for the project is part of CIHR’s Youth and Adolescent Mental Health priority area of eHealth Innovation Partnership Program (eHIPP), developed by the CIHR in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program. Philpott and the Minister of Innovation, Science, & Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains announced $13.8M for 22 innovative ehealth projects on Friday, March 5.

91��ɫ will conduct the research with information technology partner and several partner organizations.

Christo El Morr

“A Mindfulness Virtual Community would incorporate key elements of online student-to-professional group meetings, moderated peer discussion and mental health education,” said El Morr.

Students can access an online community and resources at any time. “The ultimate goal is to help students adopt health-enhancing behaviours that reduce needs for psychiatric and clinical counselling services,” said Ritvo.

In addition, the MVC model is expected to reduce pressures from an overburdened health-care system and cut wait times for help, said Ahmad.

The team hypothesizes that the MVC and group-based mindfulness groups will be similar in terms of reductions in mental distress, but the former will likely be less costly. These methods are complementary, and in combination, could be less costly than traditional specialists’ services. In the next phase of the project, the team hopes to conduct a multi-campus, national trial.

For more information on MVC, visit the website.

The post 91��ɫ U team receives close to $1M in funding for mental-health care virtual community for students appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Knowledge Mobilization documents best practices for clear language research summaries

muellerm — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

When it comes to conveying the important research to the broader community, clear language summaries are the best choice, this according to a new article published in the peer-reviewed journal, Scholarly & Research Communications.

�� David Phipps (left), executive director of research & innovation services, and colleagues from 91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization Unit (KMb), the group put pen to paper to highlight their experiences in summarizing academic research according to clear language writing and design principles over the past four years and how that practice has made research more accessible to the community.

The article titled, "A Field Note Describing the Development and Dissemination of Clear Language Research Summaries for University-Based Knowledge Mobilization", highlights best practices for the development, evaluation and dissemination of clear language research summaries as tools for research outreach, research communication and knowledge mobilization. It is co-authored by Michael Johnny, manager, 91��ɫ's Knowledge Mobilization Unit, Krista Jensen, knowledge mobilization officer at 91��ɫ and Gary Myers, a community based researcher and author of the KMbeing.com blog.

“Working with our partners and faculty to identify relevant research helps make 91��ɫ's research accessible and useful to our community partners" says Phipps.

91��ɫ piloted institutional knowledge mobilization with the University of Victoria in 2005 under a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Since then, 91��ɫ has grown its knowledge mobilization collaboration with the University of Victoria to include the other four ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche universities: Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador, Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Guelph and University of Saskatchewan.

91��ɫ currently has more than 220 clear language research summaries in a series titled ResearchSnapshot, which is published on blog. Working with a cohort of senior undergraduate work study students, the University's KMb Unit produces between 40 to 50 research summaries every summer.

"91��ɫ is proud of the work of our award-winning KMb Unit in connecting researchers and students with community partners for social innovation. As a recognized leader in knowledge mobilization initiatives, 91��ɫ’s work and reputation in this field continues to grow both nationally and internationally,” said Robert Hache, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation. “The article written by David Phipps and his KMb colleagues provides a framework for others interested in learning more about best practices and 91��ɫ’s initiatives in this area.”

"SRC and its readers are very interested in the communication and use of knowledge as mediated by processes such as knowledge mobilization," says Rowland Lorimer, SRC editor and director of the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University. "The work of David Phipps and his knowledge mobilization colleagues at 91��ɫ is of growing interest to scholars and research partners who are interested in communicating and using knowledge to benefit Canadians. SRC is pleased they have chose to publish their work with us."

91��ɫ's KMb Unit and the University of Guelph Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship have recently partnered in support of a project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to produce clear language summaries of research at the University of Guelph. The KMb Unit is also working on clear language research summaries with the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health Evidence Exchange Network and the Knowledge Network for Applied Education & Research, a knowledge mobilization network funded by Ontario's Ministry of Education of which 91��ɫ's Faculty of Education is a partner. With these partnerships in place, 91��ɫ will be hosting over 500 ResearchSnapshot clear language research summaries.

To read the full text of the article, click . To view the ResearchSnapshot for this article, click

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

The post Knowledge Mobilization documents best practices for clear language research summaries appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Researcher awarded prestigious Banting Fellowship comes to 91��ɫ

muellerm — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Nielson Bezerra, who received his PhD at Universidade Federal de Fluminense in Brazil in 2010 and now teaches at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, has been awarded a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue his research program at 91��ɫ’s Harriet Tubman Institute.

The awards were announced by Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science & technology, Thursday, Sept. 13. Bezerra will receive $140,000 in research funding over two years.

Nielson Bezerra

Bezarra’s research project, Liberated African Slaves in Brazil in the Nineteenth Century, examines patterns of forced migration of enslaved Africans to the Americas after the British and North American abolition of the slave trade. The research focuses on the 100,000 enslaved Africans who were destined for Brazil, but were removed from slave ships by the British Royal Navy after 1820 and declared “Liberated Africans”.

The individuals taken off these ships provide a representative sample of the migration to Brazil in this period. They will be studied for the purposes of revealing the broader pattern in determining where people came from in Africa and what happened to them in the Americas. Bezerra has published four books and is a member of the Board of Directors of Museu Vivo do São Bento in Duque de Caxias.

"The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are Canada's most prestigious awards for postdoctoral researchers," said Goodyear. "These internationally competitive awards allow our country to retain and attract some of the best and brightest researchers in the world, thereby building Canada's economic and competitive edge."

91��ɫ’s Vice-President Research & Innovation, Robert Haché, said, “We are most pleased to have Dr. Nielson Bezarra pursue his research program at 91��ɫ. The Banting Fellowship program leverages an opportunity to attract, retain and recognize exceptional postdoctoral researchers and support them early in their careers.”

As a post-doctoral fellow at 91��ɫ, Bezerra will be supervised by Professor Paul Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples. Bezerra joins a research team that is digitizing and analyzing documentation on Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone, Angola, Cuba, and elsewhere, besides Brazil.

The purpose of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships is to build world-class research capacity by recruiting top-tier Canadian and international postdoctoral researchers at an internationally competitive level of funding. Seventy fellowships are awarded yearly through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

The post Researcher awarded prestigious Banting Fellowship comes to 91��ɫ appeared first on Research & Innovation.