“Childhood-onset mental health problems impose very high burdens to children, families, schools and broader social and health systems.  The social determinants of health are arguably the most powerful influences on child and adult mental health.  However, few public or clinical mental health interventions systematically assess the social determinants of health and mechanisms that lead to adverse child and youth outcomes.  With support from the PSI Mental Health Knowledge Translation Fellowship, I will be able to continue my work to implement and evaluate the “Family Check-Up,” a family-centered, evidence-based program that targets known risk and protective factors for child well-being.  I will disseminate findings from our projects evaluating the Family Check-Up in three particularly high-needs populations:  children aged 2-4 years old with early onset emotional and behavioural problems, children and youth with autism spectrum disorder, and child and youth mental health outpatients.  We will disseminate our results with an aim to “make the race fair” for children and youth at high risk of severe and chronic mental health problems.” – Dr. Teresa Bennett

Dr. Teresa Bennett’s Current Appointments:

• Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Child and Youth Mental Health Program, Hamilton Health Sciences

Dr. Teresa Bennett’s Research:

• Dr. Bennett’s current research program focuses on the implementation and evaluation of the Family Check-Up (FCU) as a targeted prevention and intervention program. The FCU is a brief, evidence-based intervention that has demonstrated robust and sustained effects across child and family mental health outcomes in US studies. It is unique in its focus on multimodal assessment, tailored intervention, and emphasis on family engagement within a motivational interviewing framework.  Her research program is the first to evaluate the FCU within a Canadian setting, and comprises independent studies of its effects in 3 different samples of Ontario children at risk of chronic and severe mental illness:
  1. As a targeted prevention program for very young children (2-4 years old) at high risk of severe and chronic emotional and behaviour problems;
  2. As an ecological preventive and clinical intervention for families of children with autism spectrum disorder and comorbid emotional and behaviour problems;
  3. As a clinical intervention within a tertiary child mental health outpatient setting

About the PSI Mental Health Knowledge Translation Fellowship

In celebration of PSI Foundation’s 50th anniversary, this one-time Fellowship provides up to $300,000 in funding over two or three years for a clinician-researcher within 10 years of their first academic appointment. This Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for an Ontario investigator, who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research in the area of mental health.

“Stigma disproportionately impacts vulnerable and marginalized groups within healthcare, often resulting in inequitable outcomes. This award will allow our team to explore invisible and structural forms of mental illness stigma that are often embedded within organizational policies and practices. As we begin to deconstruct stigma through our research, we also aim to co-construct a new model of digital stigma reduction. By leveraging technology, and democratizing expertise, we hope to bring patients, caregivers, and health professionals together to tackle stigmatizing practices, and improve care for patients with mental illness.” – Dr. Javeed Sukhera

Dr. Javeed Sukhera’s Current Appointments:

• Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, London Health Sciences Centre
• Scientist, Centre for Education Research and Innovation Western University
• Associate Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute/Children’s Health Research Institute

Dr. Javeed Sukhera’s Research:

• Dr. Sukhera’s current interdisciplinary research program explores how stigma and bias influence patient care for marginalized and vulnerable populations, as well as how educational and policy innovations can improve health equity.
• He also has an interest in participatory approaches to knowledge translation and knowledge mobilization through co-design with patients and their caregivers.

About the PSI Mental Health Knowledge Translation Fellowship

In celebration of PSI Foundation’s 50th anniversary, this one-time Fellowship provides up to $300,000 in funding over two or three years for a clinician-researcher within 10 years of their first academic appointment. This Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for an Ontario investigator, who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research in the area of mental health.

“Improving the emergency care of patients and easing the suffering of as many as individuals as possible are the ultimate goals in my research career. It is an honor to be recognized by the PSI-50 Mid-Career Clinical Research award. PSI was there at the beginning when it funded our derivation study and now with this award is helping me implement the risk-stratification tool.  This award will enable me to advance emergency syncope care in Ontario, nationally and internationally by evaluating the effectiveness of the practice recommendations developed based on our Canadian Syncope Risk Score.” – Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy

Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy’s Current Appointments:

• Associate Professor, Departments of Emergency and Epidemiology, University of Ottawa
• Staff Attending Physician, The Ottawa Hospital
• Senior Scientist, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Dr. Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy’s Research:

• Dr. Thiruganasambandamoorthy’s research program focuses on health systems, specifically Emergency Department (ED) health care resource utilization and risk-stratification. His research focus is on the optimal management of the ED patients with syncope.

About the PSI-50 Mid-Career Clinical Research Award

In celebration of PSI Foundation’s 50th anniversary, this one-time award provides up to $300,000 in funding over three or four years for a clinician-researcher between five and 15 years of their first academic appointment. This award recognizes that this phase of a researcher’s career is particularly challenging, with additional academic roles and responsibilities as well as the ongoing clinical work, and it will protect at least 50% of a recipient’s time for research that aligns with PSI Foundation priorities.

“Postoperative delirium is associated with increased mortality, long-term cognitive decline, loss of autonomy, and costs. Moreover, the literature shows that, among the public, concerns about postoperative “brain damage” and “memory loss” are more frequent than concerns about death due to surgery. Indeed, the shift towards surgery in the elderly with multiple medical comorbidities will increase the encounter with surgical patients that will likely value the impact of our care on their cognitive and physical abilities, more than a prolonged survival. My research has a great potential of reducing the impact of surgery on patient lives as well as on resource use.” – Dr. Maura Marcucci

Dr. Maura Marcucci’s Current Appointments:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact & Department of Medicine, McMaster University
• Staff Physician, Division of General Internal Medicine & Division of Perioperative Care, Hamilton Health Science and St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (McMaster University)
• Research Director, Division of General Internal Medicine, McMaster University
• Investigator, Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Ontario

Dr. Maura Marcucci’s Research:

• Dr. Marucucci’s current research program focuses on neurocognitive outcomes of noncardiac surgery (i.e., postoperative delirium and long-term cognitive decline) with a specific focus on underlying mechanisms and risk factors, and interventions to reduce their incidence. She is currently leading the cogPOISE-3 study, a substudy of a large international trial looking at the effect of minimizing perioperative blood loss and hypotension, on the incidence of in-hospital delirium and 1-year cognitive decline after noncardiac surgery. She is also conducting systematic reviews of the literature on vascular and non-vascular risk factors of postoperative delirium and cognitive decline, including the role of perioperative pain and pain management, with a focus on opioids
• She is also working on improving the feasibility and methodological quality of my research, and, at the same time, increase its innovation, including the development of Artificial Intelligence models for the interpretation of neuropsychological tests

About the PSI-50 Mid-Career Clinical Research Award

In celebration of PSI Foundation’s 50th anniversary, this one-time award provides up to $300,000 in funding over three or four years for a clinician-researcher between five and 15 years of their first academic appointment. This award recognizes that this phase of a researcher’s career is particularly challenging, with additional academic roles and responsibilities as well as the ongoing clinical work, and it will protect at least 50% of a recipient’s time for research that aligns with PSI Foundation priorities.