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2022 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow at the Finish Line: Dr. Brodie Nolan Crosses the Endpoint

After a few years of tirelessly working towards their research program and knowledge translation (KT) activities, our PSI KT Fellows reach the finish line of their fellowship. As they cross the end point towards their award, we asked our fellows for reflections on their journey to share their highlights from the fellowship and advice for other aspiring or current KT Fellows.

What are the key accomplishments and outcomes from your award?

One of the greatest accomplishments from this award was the creation of FIRST60: Prehospital, Trauma, and Resuscitation Sciences ( https://first60.ca/). FIRST60 was inspired by bringing together like-minded investigators with a passion for innovating and improving the care of severely injured and ill patients. As one of the co-founders and now Director of FIRST60, it has been an amazing experience seeing the collaboration and cross-pollination of people in this space. Over the last 2 years, we were successful in launching our website; hosting monthly forums; and are looking forward to hosting the inaugural Toronto Resuscitation Conference—in collaboration with Ornge and Unity Health Toronto—to highlight the work being done in the Canadian prehospital, trauma, and resuscitation sciences realm.

What are some lessons learned during the PSI KT Fellowship?

Over the course of this Fellowship I’ve learned a ton. But here are two that stand out:

1) Research is a dish best served with friends. I have had the privilege of working with the most dedicated team of individuals spanning backgrounds on emergency medicine, trauma surgery, transfusion medicine, knowledge translation, paramedicine, nursing and military medicine. Ontario is lucky to have such network of people working hard to keep them safe, and working hard to ensure timely access to the care they need.

2) Research funding for trauma and prehospital care research is limited. As there is no large funding body to support research like we do, it is critical to have the support of organizations like PSI Foundation. Impact factors and Citation Scores tell a part of research success, but so does having your research change local or provincial policies. Funding bodies like PSI have made it possible to perform research at the local and provincial level, allowing us to evaluate the systems we have in place and to provide guidance on how the trauma system can and should adapt to improve the lives of patients in Ontario.

What was the most memorable moment of this KT Fellowship?

As part of the launch of FIRST60, we made some swag and branded slide decks and attended our national trauma conference all wearing various types of FIRST60 branded clothing. It got noticed pretty quickly, and at one point someone burst out “WHAT IS THE FIRST60?”. I definitely had a proud dad moment there.

What are some general tips and advice you would give to those who are currently completing their KT Fellowship?

There are few other salary support awards out there that give you this flexibility to explore what is best for your career. While I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do during my KT Fellowship (and was still able to do those things), some of the best moments over the last 3 years were unexpected detours I took to explore other opportunities. In my case, one of these detours led to me becoming the PI on the Study of Whole blood In Frontline Trauma (SWiFT) Canada study. This is the first prehospital transfusion clinical trial in Canada, and was the first use of whole blood in the Canadian civilian environment. So while yes, you should always take time for yourself, friends, and family, allowing some flexibility to travel off the path or take an extra meeting or two could open up a whole other world of possibilities.

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2023 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow Update: Dr. Tea Rosic Keeps the Race Going

Once our PSI Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellows take off from the starting line, they make strides as they move their knowledge translation activities and research program forward. As the finish line becomes clearer in their sight, we asked our fellows some questions to share their progress thus far, and what they look forward to in the remainder of their KT Fellowship.

What are some of your accomplishments from the KT Fellowship thus far?

The PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship has afforded me numerous opportunities to pursue my own program of knowledge translation work and collaborate with mentors and colleagues on new projects. My clinical work and research focus on adolescent substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders (“concurrent disorders”).  I use clinical and health services research methods to understand the development, impact, and treatment of concurrent disorders in this population.

During my KT Fellowship, I am (1) working with community organizations in Ontario to identify needs and gaps in services and build capacity for adolescent concurrent disorders care, (2) developing a specialized child Substance Use and Concurrent Disorders program at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), and (3) contributing to national standards development and implementation for paediatric concurrent disorders.

My program of KT under this fellowship began with a study to develop a framework outlining the components of child and youth concurrent disorders programs that has been published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (Rosic et al., 2024). My team then collaborated with community partners to conduct a community-based needs assessment to identify gaps in care for child and adolescent substance use and concurrent disorders in Eastern Ontario. We recently presented our findings at the Children’s Healthcare Canada annual conference in April 2025. With the goal of knowledge mobilization, I have led several presentations on paediatric concurrent disorders care locally and provincially within the Ontario Telemental Health Network. I have also collaborated with the Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions (the Knowledge Institute) to develop a resource for healthcare professionals on paediatric concurrent disorders care, under the mentorship of my KT Fellowship mentor, Dr. Amy Porath, Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization at the Knowledge Institute.

This year, in partnership with Kids Come First and CHEO, and funded by Health Canada, we are launching a clinical program to expand substance use screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment, housed in the Substance Use and Concurrent Disorders program at CHEO. Relatedly, we are conducting a study to examine the prevalence of concurrent disorders in youth accessing centralized mental health intake in collaboration with the Knowledge Institute and Kids Come First. Finally, to advance national standards implementation for youth concurrent disorders, I am leading a study examining the uptake of guidelines on assessment and treatment of nicotine vaping in hospital-based child and youth mental health programs across Canada. Protected time to engage in KT and research has been invaluable and access to a network of collaborators spurred by mentorship I am receiving during my KT Fellowship has led to these exciting opportunities.

What are some items/deliverables that you look forward to coming to fruition in the remainder of your KT Fellowship?

Over the next two years of my KT Fellowship, I look forward to ongoing collaboration with the Knowledge Institute that will result in knowledge products on service and system mapping in Ontario for child and youth concurrent disorders care. Additionally, we will launch our expanded Substance Use and Concurrent Disorders service at CHEO in July, filling key gaps in the continuum of care with community programs. Numerous KT activities will come from this work in order to disseminate knowledge within the broader clinical and scientific communities.

What are some things that surprised you during your fellowship thus far?

Most eye-opening has been the critical impact of mentorship in KT. As physicians and scientists, we receive most of our training in clinical care and primary research methods but often less training, or certainly less formal training, on knowledge mobilization. There are many skills required to engage in knowledge translation that effects change. As clinicians, we intuitively know the importance of research to improve our clinical care, yet there is often a gap in our ability to mobilize the knowledge to bring about necessary change and engage with relevant knowledge users and champions. I have been pleasantly surprised by the seemingly endless new opportunities to engage in KT related to my area of research, above and beyond what I initially sought out to do in my KT Fellowship. The mentorship I am receiving on KT from Dr. Porath has been key to this.

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2025 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow at the Starting Line: Passing the Baton to Dr. Nicole Kozloff

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 they embark on their KT Fellowship journey, we asked them few questions to know them beyond their recipient biographies, as well as some notes they could pass on to future applicants.

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

Grateful, inspired, supported

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

My journey as a trainee and early-career researcher has exposed me to different research methods and clinical settings. In both my research and clinical work, I have identified gaps in the reach and quality of services to young people with serious mental illness with clear sociodemographic disparities. As I look ahead to the rest of my career, I am increasingly motivated to bring effective models of care to all young people with serious mental illness. The focus of the PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship is to move research discoveries into the real world to improve health outcomes; the PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship will support me to bring research discoveries to youth with serious mental illness in real-world settings.

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

  • Spend time getting to know your topic area by reviewing the research literature, speaking with clinicians or working in the area yourself, and engaging with people with lived experience. This will help you to develop thoughtful and informed approaches to research and demonstrate your expertise and suitability for funding in your application.
  • Familiarize yourself with PSI’s definition of and approach to KT to ensure that your work aligns.
  • Start identifying the people around you who have expertise in implementing research discoveries in your population of interest and can speak to your suitability to undertake your proposed programme of research. This will prepare you to select people who can act as a mentor and references for the application and provide you with the support and guidance to realize your vision.
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2025 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellow at the Starting Line: Passing the Baton to Dr. Lucy Barker

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 they embark on their KT Fellowship journey, we asked them few questions to know them beyond their recipient biographies, as well as some notes they could pass on to future applicants. 

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

Excited, honoured, motivated

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

I applied for the PSI KT Fellowship to facilitate having more dedicated time for knowledge translation related to my research on youth reproductive mental health. My goal is to do research and implementation work that has a substantive positive impact on reproductive and mental health outcomes. The Fellowship affords me time to engage knowledge users including clinicians, community organizations, and youth with lived experience, and translate research findings into clinical care and services.

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

  • This is a great opportunity for early career physicians to develop their knowledge translation programs including building relationships with community organizations and people with lived experience.
  • When preparing your application, consider how knowledge can be translated not only into new projects, but also into existing clinical services to improve care.
  • Keep trying! This was not my first time applying for a PSI KT Fellowship.
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New PSI Funding Opportunity: 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship

PSI Launches the 2026 Competition for the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

PSI Foundation is very pleased to announce the 2026 competition for the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship. This Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for a new investigator who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high impact knowledge translation research. The Fellowship funds, dedicated to salary support, must protect at least 50% of the Fellow’s time to conduct such research.

Please note: This funding opportunity is not an additional PSI operating grant. Knowledge translation must be the fundamental purpose of this Fellowship and must be demonstrated in the application.

Amount and Duration of Funding

This program offers two options for a funding timeline for salary support: A maximum of $150,000 per year for two years; OR a maximum of $100,000 per year for three years.

Please note: the award is intended to protect at least 50% of the fellow’s time to undertake research, regardless of whether the award is taken over two or three years.

Eligibility of Candidate

For this competition, PSI has set the eligibility criteria for candidates as follows:

The candidate for the Fellowship must be either:

  • Within six (6) years of their first academic appointment and have demonstrated potential for high impact research work
    • Please note: PSI has adjusted this eligibility requirement in recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Dedicating at least 50% of a full-time schedule to the Fellowship
  • A practising physician with a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) licensed M.D. having direct patient care responsibilities and an academic appointment, thus eligible to apply for their own research grants as an independent investigator.

OR

  • A clinical fellow in Ontario who is a practising physician having direct patient care responsibilities, with a supervisor who has an academic appointment and that can provide the necessary research supervision and infrastructure (including administering the grant at the sponsoring institution). A letter of support from this supervisor must be included in the application.

The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellow is able to apply to PSI for an operating grant (e.g. New Investigator grant).

Important Information in Funding Guidelines

The Funding Guidelines contain important information regarding the award, including PSI’s definition of knowledge translation, sponsoring institution requirements, and funding criteria.

Please review this document before applying.

How to Apply

Similar to the previous years, PSI is launching this competition through a Letter of Intent (LOI) process. Please note that for this competition, applicants are required to submit their applications directly to PSI, not through the institution.

We require all applicants to submit the completed LOI directly to PSI via the PSI Online Grants Management System (https://psifoundation.smartsimple.ca/) by June 9th, 2025 at 5pm EST. LOIs will be reviewed by the PSI Grants Committee in July 2025.

PSI will invite successful applicants to submit full applications by October 20th, 2025 at 5pm EST, which will undergo peer review and committee review for a final funding decision in December 2025.

Questions?

Please contact the PSI Office to discuss any questions you may have about submitting an application for funding.

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New PSI Funding Opportunity: 2026 PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship

PSI acknowledges that mid-career can be a challenging time for physician researchers. During this phase, there are often additional academic roles and responsibilities including committee work, leadership positions, and mentoring of junior investigators, while clinical work continues. PSI recognizes the importance in supporting this phase of an investigator’s trajectory.

PSI Launches the 2026 Competition for the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

PSI Foundation is very pleased to announce the 2026 competition for the PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship. This Fellowship is intended to provide salary support for a mid-career physician researcher in Ontario who has demonstrated the ability to successfully complete high-impact knowledge translation research. The Fellowship funds, dedicated to salary support, must protect at least 50% of the Fellow’s time to conduct such research.

Please note: Knowledge translation must be the fundamental purpose of this Fellowship and must be demonstrated in the application.

Amount and Duration of Funding

Total Support

This program offers two options for a funding timeline for salary support:

A maximum of $400,000 over two years;

OR

A maximum of $400,000 over three years.

The award is intended to protect at least 50% of the fellow’s time to undertake research, regardless of whether the award is taken over two or three years.

Matching Funding Requirements

The sponsoring institution is required to fund 50% of the total award.

For example, if the fellow requests a total support of $400,000 over two years, then PSI will fund $200,000 over two years ($100,000 per year) and the institution is required to co-fund $200,000 over two years ($100,000 per year).

Eligibility

For this competition, the candidate for the Fellowship must be:

  • A practicing physician in Ontario with a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario licensed M.D. having direct patient care responsibilities and an academic appointment, thus eligible to apply for their own research grants as an independent investigator
  • Within six (6) to fifteen (15) years of their first academic appointment and have demonstrated potential for high impact research work
  • Dedicating at least 50% of a full-time schedule to the Fellowship

The PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellow is able to apply to PSI for an operating grant (e.g. Clinical Research grant).

Important Information in Funding Guidelines

The Funding Guidelines contain important information regarding the award, including PSI’s definition of knowledge translation, matching funding requirements, and funding criteria.

Please review this document before applying.

How to Apply

PSI is launching this competition through a Letter of Intent (LOI) process. Please note that for this competition, applicants are required to submit their applications directly to PSI, not through their institution.

We require all applicants to submit the completed LOI directly to PSI via the PSI Online Grants Management System (https://psifoundation.smartsimple.ca/) by June 9th, 2025 at 5pm EST. LOIs will be reviewed by the PSI Grants Committee in July 2025.

PSI will invite successful applicants to submit full applications by October 20th, 2025 at 5pm EST, which will undergo peer review and committee review for a final funding decision in December 2025.

Questions?

Please contact the PSI Office to discuss any questions you may have about submitting an application for funding.

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Meet the PSI Chair: Q&A with Dr. Naana Jumah

About Dr. Naana Jumah

Dr. Naana Jumah is an Obstetrician Gynaecologist at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Assistant Professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). She holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a DPhil in Medical Engineering from the University of Oxford, which she completed as a Rhodes Scholar.

She graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology with a specialization in Addiction Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Jumah’s clinical practice and research focuses on Indigenous women’s health and addiction in pregnancy in Northwestern Ontario. She has won numerous awards for her work and advocacy in Indigenous maternal health, including the Carl Nimrod Educator Award from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada.

Questions & Answers:

1. Could you use three words to describe how you feel about your new role as the PSI Chair?
“Determined, inspired and progressive.”

2. What inspired you to pursue medicine—specifically in obstetrics and gynaecology?
“I started off as an engineer and really loved the problem-solving aspect of the job, but I found it wasn’t as fulfilling for me because I missed the experience I had through volunteer work in Northwestern Ontario in advocacy and social justice where you really get involved in people’s lives.”

“Through my engineering doctoral research, I had the opportunity to collaborate with a physician and saw how, through medicine, I could combine research, problem-solving on a human scale, and social justice in one. Once I got into medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology chose me – I love the patient population; I love the variety of clinic, procedures and surgery; I love that you can have a meaningful impact in women’s lives through advances in research.”

3. What are the most memorable moments of your career thus far?
“In Obstetrics & Gynaecology, you are part of such pivotal moments in people’s lives in a way that you don’t get to be in other aspects of medicine. Day-to-day, that is incredibly rewarding. The PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship played a pivotal role in establishing my research career. The award also legitimised the type of research I wanted to do at an institution that did not have dedicated clinician scientists. Without that Fellowship and the external validation it provided, I would have never been able to work with women in remote First Nations communities to co-create research priorities that addressed their reproductive health needs or to advocate for the return of Indigenous midwifery to Northwestern Ontario. While the day-to-day interaction with patients is rewarding, the impact that I can achieve through research truly brings me joy.”

4. How do you bring your experience and expertise as an obstetrician gynaecologist and clinician researcher to your role as a member of PSI’s committees, and more recently as the Chair of PSI?
“My background definitely gives me a different perspective on research, clinical practice, and health care philanthropy. Women’s health has always been marginalized from mainstream research and so has research including people living in northern, rural and remote communities. Those populations are the focus of my clinical practice and my research. They are also representative of me personally as an immigrant woman who has lived in Northwestern Ontario for over 40 years. But I also have experience working in large urban academic centres and maintain an appointment at the University of Toronto. Because of this, in Board and Committee meetings, I am able to bridge understanding from multiple research spaces: urban vs rural; resourced vs under-resourced; academic vs community-based; mainstream vs marginalized.”

5. You are one of the first PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellows to become involved with PSI Foundation; you first became a committee member and now you are the PSI Chair. Can you tell us what motivated you to become involved with PSI Foundation?
“The PSI Foundation provided me with a tremendous opportunity to kick-start my career as a clinician scientist. For that, I will be forever grateful. The best way I could think of to show my gratitude for that opportunity was to become involved with PSI and hopefully pay it forward to another researcher whose life may also be transformed by a fellowship. Initially, I was invited to sit in on the PSI Grants Committee. It took a few meetings to get a sense of the organisation and the expectations but once I did, I was hooked. Almost ten years later, I am now the Chair of the Foundation—something I would’ve never dreamed of at that first Grants Committee meeting.”

6. What are your goals for PSI as the Chair?
“As PSI Chair, I would like to raise the profile of PSI Foundation and make it the recognised home for physician-led research in Ontario. We have been funding physician-led research for over 50 years and we have granted over $155 million in that time. However, if you were to ask the average clinician scientist who we are or what we do, I think there would be little awareness of the organisation and the impact we have had. At 50 plus years, we have the opportunity to build on the legacy we have established and transform into an organization that is responsive to a changing research landscape and the changing health needs of the people of Ontario. We can do more to build community amongst clinician researchers from medical school, through residency, fellowship and into practice.”

7. What do you think the future of PSI will look like?
“I’m not sure. I like surprises.”

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Two Physician Researchers Awarded: 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship

The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising physician’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Two Physician Researchers Awarded with the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship

PSI Foundation is pleased to name two physician researchers as the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship recipients:

Dr. Lucy Barker – Women’s College Hospital (Recipient Biography)

Dr. Nicole Kozloff – Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) (Recipient Biography)

Please visit their recipient biographies for more information on each of these Fellows and how they will be using PSI funds to conduct high-impact knowledge translation research. We thank all stakeholders for supporting PSI with the 2025 competition.

PSI’s Commitment to Funding KT Research for Early Career Physician Researchers in Ontario

Knowledge translation research is aimed at taking research discoveries and moving them into the real world to improve health outcomes. PSI’s KT Fellowship program focuses on translational research that is multi-disciplinary and multi-method, focused on improving the processes of care and/or outcomes of medical care for Ontarians.

Since the launch of this award in 2012, PSI has invested over $7.4 million in funding 25 physician researchers in Ontario with the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

2026 Competition to Open in Spring 2025

PSI plans to launch the competition for the 2026 PSI Graham Farquharson KT Fellowship in Spring 2025. Please follow us on X (Twitter) @PSIFoundation and subscribe to our mailing list to stay updated and connected with our latest news!

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Dr. Nicole Kozloff: 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship Recipient

“Despite the significant burden of mental health challenges among youth in Canada, only a minority access appropriate services. This is true even for the subset of youth who have particularly complex needs, as there are few evidence-based, implementable interventions designed for them. My research engages service users and providers to adapt interventions for youth with complex mental health needs and evaluate them. By considering implementation from the outset, we can connect youth with the treatment that best meets their needs earlier in the course of illness and improve their outcomes.” – Dr. Nicole Kozloff

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Nicole Kozloff as the recipient of the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Nicole Kozloff

Dr. Nicole Kozloff is a scientist, child and adolescent psychiatrist and the co-director of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is also an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Kozloff’s research aims to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of services for youth with complex mental health needs and their families. To date, she has been awarded over $14,000,000 in research funding as Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI. Having benefitted from support and guidance from mentors, she has contributed to several mentorship activities for junior psychiatrists and other scientists, and recently received the CIHR – CPA Glenda M. MacQueen Memorial Career Development Award for Women in Psychiatry.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Kozloff highlights the significance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the early career level.

“Thoughtfully designing research and authentically engaging with end users to improve our health system takes time, yet there are so few opportunities for salary support for early-career physician researchers. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship is a rare example of an award that protects the time of physician researchers from the other demands of their busy careers. This allows physician researchers to apply their unique combination of clinical and scientific expertise to help bring research innovations to the real work.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve the Outcomes for Youth with Complex Mental Health Needs

A subset of Canadian youth has “complex” mental illness, with a major impact on functioning, extensive use of services, multiple mental or physical health conditions, or challenges related to the social determinants of health. For youth with psychosis, early psychosis intervention (EPI) programs are effective in research settings, but quality of care in real-world settings is inconsistent, and outcomes vary by the social determinants of health—they need structures and processes to support consistent, high-quality EPI service delivery, explicitly designed to address equity gaps. For youth with complex mental health needs other than psychosis, few well-articulated models of care exist, and promising practices are not always rigorously evaluated or spread beyond single settings—they need evidence-based, youth-friendly models informed by those with lived experience, addressing a broad range of needs, that can be implemented across different settings.

This Fellowship aims to implement the NAVIGATE model of coordinated specialty care, digitizing it to support training and uptake, incorporating processes to address the social determinants of health, and adapting it for youth with other complex mental health needs. These projects bring the evidence-based NAVIGATE model to the real world to improve outcomes for youth with the greatest mental health burden.

 

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Dr. Lucy Barker: 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation (KT) Fellowship Recipient

“Addressing youth mental health and reproductive health in an integrated way has the potential to reduce barriers to care and improve wellbeing. This work, supported by the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship, aims to improve sexual and reproductive healthcare for Ontario youth with psychosis, and improve mental healthcare for pregnant and postpartum youth.” – Dr. Lucy Barker

PSI Foundation is pleased to announce Dr. Lucy Barker as the recipient of the 2025 PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship.

About Dr. Lucy Barker

Dr. Lucy Barker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a Psychiatrist and an Early Career Scientist at Women’s College Hospital, and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES.

Dr. Barker’s research focuses on the intersection of reproductive and mental health, and equitable access to mental health services. Her current work specifically aims to improve reproductive mental health services for adolescents and transition-age youth.

Dr. Barker has demonstrated productivity as an early career Clinician-Scientist (including 43 journal article publications, 19 as a first or senior responsible author). She has received numerous awards for her research, including a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award, two Pat Martens Memorial Student Prizes in Maternal and Child Health Research (Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research), and the Dr. Jack V. Tu Memorial Award for Excellence (IHPME). She has also taken on leadership roles to improve mentorship in the field of reproductive mental health.

About the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship

Knowledge translation research aims at transitioning research discoveries to the real world to improve health outcomes. The PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship – valued at $300,000 for over two or three years – helps protect a promising new clinician investigator’s research time, allowing the Fellow to undertake high-impact translational research in Ontario.

Dr. Barker highlights the importance of salary support awards for physician researchers at the early career level.

“Salary support to conduct research and knowledge translation work is critical for early career physician researchers. The support provided by the PSI Graham Farquharson Knowledge Translation Fellowship will allow me time to conduct research, implement findings in clinical practice, supervise students, and engage with stakeholders including community partners and youth with lived experience. I am incredibly grateful for this support.”

Fellowship Funds to be Used to Improve Care for Youth in Ontario, Integrating Both Reproductive Health and Mental Health

Mental health problems and reproductive health are highly intertwined for youth. Youth who are pregnant or recently delivered a baby are at high risk of experiencing mental illness, and youth with psychosis have higher rates of abortion compared to their unaffected peers. Yet, services that incorporate both reproductive health and mental health for youth are lacking. This project aims to improve care that integrates both reproductive health and mental health for youth in Ontario.

The project has two overlapping components, both of which fill critical gaps in reproductive and mental health services for youth. In the first, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will use new knowledge from their research about the mental health of pregnant and postpartum Ontario youth to improve current services, and to implement and evaluate a new virtual therapy group for postpartum youth. In the second, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will implement and evaluate a sexual and reproductive health module they recently created for women, transgender, and non-binary youth receiving care within early psychosis intervention programs. Throughout, Dr. Barker and her colleagues will engage with youth with lived experience, community organizations, clinicians, and clinical and health systems leaders to incorporate diverse perspectives and maximize impact.

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