Upon receiving their approval letters and sharing the exciting news of the award with their community, the PSI Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellows begin preparing to get settled in their place at the starting line. As Dr. Sophiya Benjamin embarks on her KT Fellowship journey, we asked her a few questions to know her beyond her recipient biography, as well as some notes she could pass on to future applicants.

Please use 3 words to describe how you feel as you begin your KT Fellowship.

Grateful, Energized, Hopeful

Why did you apply for the PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship? How does this award align with your current research and career goals?

My interest in sleep began through my work at GeriMedRisk. Over years of providing medication optimization consultations for older adults across Ontario, I noticed a persistent pattern: so many of the people referred to us were on sedative-hypnotic medications or off label antipsychotics for sleep. It became clear that insomnia was being managed almost entirely through potentially inappropriate prescribing, rather than through the evidence-based behavioural interventions we know are safer and more effective. That observation set me on a path that has shaped the last several years of my career.

The more I looked into it, the wider the gap appeared. Despite more than 40 randomized controlled trials establishing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia as the gold standard first-line treatment, most clinicians still default to sleep hygiene advice that doesn’t work or medications that carry real risks for older adults. I realized that the problem wasn’t a lack of evidence, the challenge was with translating evidence into practice.

I have worked on this by co-chairing the Ontario Health’s Quality Standard for Insomnia Disorder, and started the Older Adult Insomnia Collaborative, a 45-member multidisciplinary network spanning Canada and the U.S. More recently, we completed co-design research with residents and staff across Ontario’s long-term care system. With grants in place to support some of this work and strong partnerships established, what I needed was protected time to focus on the next steps. The PSI Mid-Career KT Fellowship provides that. Over three years, I’m implementing a coordinated knowledge translation strategy focused on insomnia in older adults.

What are 3 to 5 general tips and notes you would pass on to those preparing their KT Fellowship application?

• Show your relationships and collaborations and how they will shape your KT activities. Knowledge translation doesn’t happen in isolation. Demonstrate that you have genuine partnerships with the people who will use, benefit from, or be affected by the knowledge you’re translating — whether that’s clinicians, patients, families, or policymakers. Letters of support are helpful, but describing how those relationships shaped your plan is even more compelling.
• Show what you’ve already built. The KT Fellowship isn’t about starting from scratch. Rather, it’s about having the right foundation in place and making the case that protected time is what will turn your groundwork into impact.
• Connect your goals so they reinforce each other. If you’re working across settings or populations, show how the pieces fit together. Shared frameworks, coordinated dissemination, and cross-sector learning can help make your plan more compelling beyond a collection of standalone activities.