Shelly Ben-David

Dr. Shelly Ben-David is an assistant professor of Social Work in the Faculty of Health and Social Development at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan. Shelly is currently a principal investigator of a SSHRC Insight Development Grant in partnership with Foundry Kelowna, “Service utilization among youth: Testing a novel decision-making framework”. Shelly is also a co-principal investigator on a BC Support Unit Patient Engagement Methods Cluster project, “Bridging the digital divide and opening access to online research opportunities in youth and young adults living mental illness in British Columbia”.

Shelly is a licensed social worker and graduated from Columbia University with an MSc in Social Work and a PhD in Social Work from NYU. Shelly’s program of research focuses on early intervention in mental health among youth and young adults living with mental health challenges. Shelly has partnered with Foundry BC to understand the decision-making process and barriers to access that youth and young adults living with mental health challenges and their families experience when accessing mental health services. From these findings, Shelly hopes to develop interventions to increase mental health service use among BC youth struggling with mental health challenges. Shelly is also interested in understanding how identity development among young people is impacted in the early stages of psychosis. Shelly was awarded an MSFHR Scholar award in 2019.

For an up-to-date list of publications by Dr. Ben-David, please see ResearchGate.