Mental health and substance use (MHSU) Archives - SRDC

Stakeholders Consultation Meeting on Identifying and Supporting for PLWD Among the Homeless Population in BC

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:37:33 +0000

Homeless individuals are among the most marginalized and neglected populations, and the intersection of dementia and homelessness presents unique challenges for care provision and policy intervention. This meeting will provide an opportunity to gather key stakeholders to examine these challenges, explore the existing gaps in knowledge and services, and collaboratively develop approaches to address these challenges effectively. By identifying the needs, barriers, and potential solutions to support homeless PLWD, we aim to generate insights that will inform and strengthen the implementation of a pilot program in British Columbia.

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Development of Brief Resources to Support the Implementation of the National Standard of Canada for Mental-Health and Well-Being for Post-Secondary Students

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 14:59:33 +0000

In collaboration with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, SRDC is developing two resources for post-secondary institutions to provide recommendations and suggestions to facilitate implementation of the Standard. A case study involving four institutions will be carried out, combining interview data, a document review, and aggregate data from the Campus Mental Health Action Tracker. The resources are intended to be distributed across different networks to inspire and support the implementation of the Standard.

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Assessment of the National Chart Review Study on Substance-related Acute Toxicity Deaths From 2016 to 2017

Wallaa Daramlly — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 14:26:42 +0000

Canada continues to experience an overdose crisis with more than 35,000 people dying from opioid-related overdoses since 2016 (ref.). To support the national evidence-base needed to respond to the crisis, the Substance-related Harms Division at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has been working closely with provinces and territories on a national chart review study to address data gaps. Detailed information from coroner and medical examiner files was collected to describe the characteristics of people who died from a substance-related acute toxicity in Canada, including the circumstances of death and the specific substances involved. PHAC has engaged SRDC to conduct an assessment of this national study’s design and implementation to identify lessons learned and support planning for future studies. This assessment will also explore the extent to which the study findings have informed, or could inform, policies and decision-making. Given the critical nature of the overdose crisis, it is vitally important to assess and learn from this first-of-its-kind national study to identify opportunities for improvement and future research to better understand and address the overdose crisis as it evolves.

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Girls’ Mental Health Project Evaluation

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 13:09:19 +0000

Building on the evidence review update for Girls’ Fund programming, the Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) is piloting anti-oppressive mental health support training and capacity building for up to six Girls’ Fund grantees. These additional supports (i.e., training and a toolkit) will offer grantees promising, evidence-based practices to increase protective factors using a strengths-based and anti-oppressive approach. As programs adopt these additional supports, SRDC is designing and implementing an evaluation strategy to capture the learnings from the pilot.

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A Tri-Cities Wrap Around Model of Care to Maternal Mental Health in Immigrants

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:48:20 +0000

This project aims to enhance the capacity of service providers and organizations to promote mental health in safe, effective and trauma-informed ways and to implement a coordinated model of care that would promote mental health and prevent mental illness in postpartum immigrant women and their families. This project will deliver an adapted model of intervention by enhancing referral processes from family physicians/ maternity clinics and midwives to community supports, such as early years service providers and where needed to more specialized mental health supports, and by strengthening the capacity of service providers to support postpartum women and their families on improving mental health. SRDC is the learning partner responsible for conducting an evaluation of the project. The evaluation will aim to measure the impact of project activities on service providers’ knowledge and capacity to promote culturally appropriate mental health services; families’ awareness of the importance of mental health; and the accessibility of mental health supports and services for immigrant families with children 0-6.

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Evidence Review and Mental Health Pilot Community Consultation for Girls’ Fund Programs

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:44:03 +0000

The Girls’ Fund supports programs that give girls and gender-diverse youth tools to develop into confident, resilient people, right when they need this support most. In preparation for the next Girls’ Fund cohort, The Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) has commissioned an update of the evidence informing Girls’ Fund programming for adolescent girls and gender-diverse youth. Based on needs identified stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, CWF is also engaging with community organizations to understand their experiences with anti-oppressive mental health approaches for children and youth, in preparation for designing and implementing an anti-oppressive mental health pilot in Girls’ Fund programming.

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Reducing Apprentice Drug Use in the Skilled Trades: Best Practices for Safe Canadian Workplaces

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 16:31:47 +0000

The goal of this project is to understand the extent and nature of substance use among apprentices and tradespeople, and the best practices available to help support their wellbeing and create safer workplaces. Key findings from an anonymous Canada-wide survey with apprentices and tradespeople, as well as 50 interviews with employers, unions and tradespeople across the country will be used to inform a national communications campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the risks of substance use, and sharing resources to prevent drug use and reduce harm.

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Guidance for Workplace Policy on Substance Use Impairment

Wallaa Daramlly — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 20:12:14 +0000

Ensuring employee well-being and workplace health is essential to developing successful, safe organizations across all industries and work settings. Canadian employers are seeking resources to support development of effective policies to address impairment and, in particular, that ensure employees affected by substance use issues get the help and support they need, but also that workplaces remain safe, employees’ health and privacy are protected, costs are contained, and any other potential negative outcomes are prevented.

In response, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) has engaged SRDC to conduct a review of the latest research and best practices in workplace policy regarding impairment and substance use. The resulting technical report will outline what is known about best practices – including in emerging areas such as peer support and harm reduction – and in turn, support CCSA in guiding employers and other workplace stakeholders as they develop workplace policies on substance use impairment.

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Synthesizing the Evidence for Integrated Youth Services

U7 Solutions — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 22:59:13 +0000

Integrated Youth Services (IYS) is a pan-Canadian movement to build youth-focused mental health, substance use, and related services that aim to provide the right care at the right time, by the right provider for young people aged 12-25 in Canada. The rapidly growing suite of IYS projects constitutes the largest and most ambitious movement currently underway to reform mental health services across the country.

SRDC has been engaged by the Bell-Graham Boeckh Foundation Partnership to synthesize what is currently known about IYS in Canada regarding current reach, implementation processes, and impact. The resulting report, which will include an overview document, will establish a baseline of the current state of IYS development in Canada and identify gaps in the evidence.

Collecting and documenting learnings and best practices will help to increase awareness of the evidence for IYS and support future efforts to improve the quality and scale of this model of care, thus enhancing impact.

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‘Hash It Out’: Community-Based Research on IRER Youth Cannabis and Mental Health

U7 Solutions — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 23:56:36 +0000

The purpose of this project is to explore the relationship between cannabis use and mental health and wellness from the perspectives of youth within immigrant, refugee, ethnocultural, and racialized (IRER) communities in Ottawa. SRDC is partnering with the Centre for Resilience and Social Development and Dr. Saida Abdi (University of Minnesota School of Social Work) to carry out this work. The project is based on a participatory, community-driven approach.

A youth research coordinator is leading the research team, and IRER youth are engaged as co-researchers. The project is aligned with an experience-based co-design methodology, which includes conducting qualitative interviews and focus groups, and hosting community engagement events. Through this research, people with multiple perspectives – youth, family/supports, and service providers – are brought together to share their experiences and identify solutions for action and policy change.

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