There is a pressing need to find effective ways to promote health and well-being of ethnoculturally-diverse older adults. To do so, it is important to foster trust between researchers and ethnocultural communities; yet our understanding of how to do so is limited. Therefore, we propose to convene scholars from implementation science, ethno-gerontology and healthy aging; community partners that serve diverse groups of older adults; and older adults themselves to explore the idea of trust and how to foster trust between researchers and ethnocultural communities in Canada. Using a “Café Scientifique” approach that encourages ‘deep’ discussion these groups will get together to: i. explore the role of trust in health-promoting programs for older adults from ethnocultural communities and identify effective approaches that foster trust; ii. co-create a ‘Trusted Partnership Roadmap’ with guidelines for research and practice, that identifies culturally appropriate trust-building strategies, and iii. plan for a CIHR Project Grant in cultural adaptation of Choose to Move-an effective health-promoting program for older adults.
Program: Convening and Collaborating Awards
Prioritizing Steps to address oncofertility and supportive care needs with young adults identifying as men in BC
The purpose of this project is to work together with a group of young adults with cancer who identify as men in BC to better understand their experiences seeking support for cancer related infertility and achieving other life-stage specific milestones. In a recent review of research exploring reproductive concerns in cancer survivors, Dong et al. (2023), highlights that studies focus on women cancer patients, with relatively less attention given to those who identify as men, including those who are racialized and those who identify as trans-gender men, creating a lack of support for them when confronting the risk of cancer-related infertility and other life-stage specific challenges. Guided by participatory action and patient-oriented research, we will host two workshops over 12 months, one virtual and the other in-person, with young men (ages 15-39). Our aim: understanding their views on fertility;infertility, support-seeking experiences, and co-establishing a research agenda;communication strategy to challenge cultural and gender stereotypes in oncofertility and supportive care and enhance engagement of men in research and the co-development of programming.
Examining unregulated drug use among construction workers in the South Asian diaspora
Amidst the ongoing toxic drug overdose public health emergency, it is urgent to understand how to better support South Asian people who use drugs. Although race and ethnicity-based data is not collected by the BC Coroner service for toxic drug fatalities, a review of medical charts from 2015 to 2018 by the Fraser Health Authority found that fatal overdoses disproportionately rose among South Asian people compared to non-South Asians. The current proposal is in collaboration with the Surrey Union of Drug Users, a peer-led community-based organization that has raised concerns about the lack of supports for South Asian people. We seek to bring together South Asian people who use drugs with research users and researchers for a series of workshops, facilitated in Punjabi, to co-design a culturally meaningful and language-accessible research agenda and questionnaire. If successful, the proposed activities will enhance the quality of our research tools and provide insight on priorities for this population, ultimately leading to more relevant and culturally sensitive research findings and improved care for one of the fastest growing populations in Canada.
Building Relationships and a Reciprocal Research Agenda for the Unlearning & Undoing White Supremacy and Indigenous Specific Racism Lab for Population and Public Health in BC
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples have a right to health. BC laws affirm this right. Settler health systems have not yet fulfilled our obligations. Evidence is clear that Indigenous-specific racism persists across BC’s health system.
But how can we change what we are doing to uphold Indigenous rights and eradicate Indigenous-specific racism? This is the question we get most from our colleagues in population and public health.
Getting at the “how” is the focus of a newly created “Unlearning & Undoing White Supremacy and Indigenous-Specific Racism Lab.”
The U&U Lab brings together 3 provincial population and public health organizations: BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer, the BC CDC, and Provincial Health Services Authority-Indigenous Health.
To start our work in a good way, we need to come together to:
1. Undertake territorial protocols with Coast Salish Nations
2. Build relationships
3. Map our vision, grounding principles, and research agenda for the next 5 years
We will host a meeting bringing together representatives from Coast Salish Nations, Indigenous health thought leaders, and settler population and public health leaders to set vision, grounding principles, and research agenda for the U&U Lab.
Setting Direction for Advancing Digital Health Literacy Training Support to Optimize Older Adults’ Technology Use in Chronic Cardiovascular Disease Self-Care
British Columbia’s population is getting older. Many older adults are aging with chronic heart conditions. Digital tools, or programs and resources for use with different technologies, can help older adults look after themselves in living with their chronic heart condition(s), but many older adults need training and support to use them. This project will find out what older adults with chronic heart conditions need and prefer in the way of support and training. At the same time, the project will help find out what existing community digital literacy training programs for older adults currently offer, and what they think might be possible and workable for them in adding health technology support to their existing programs. The things we learn will be used to help support older adults with heart conditions to use digital technologies for self-care. Then we will put together all this information and have a meeting to discuss next steps. This project will allow us to build a strong team and gather direction for the best way forward. In particular, by talking directly with older adults with heart conditions and people who support them to use digital technologies, we can come up with ideas that are more likely to be meaningful for them.
Community-Crafted Priorities for Wildlife Health and Food Sovereignty in Akisq’nuk First Nation
Historically, scientific research has been conducted without legitimate engagement with or, in many cases, at the expense of Indigenous communities. To reconcile research relationships, there is growing recognition of the need to engage with Indigenous nations throughout the research process and to pursue questions that are valued by those who live on and care for the lands where research is occurring. An area of shared interest is the health of wildlife and ecosystems; many communities depend on wildlife for sustenance and livelihoods, and, thus, threats to wildlife health extend to impact food security, culture, and wellbeing. Through two days of relationship-building and dialogue with Akisq’nuk First Nation members who live in and outside of community we plan to 1) identify Nation priorities for wildlife health and Indigenous food sovereignty research, 2) develop an engagement protocol guiding future research, and 3) co-create knowledge products describing these priorities for use by the Nation, the research team, and the Wildlife Health Program (Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship). This project will serve as a basis for future community-driven research efforts and inform provincial wildlife health programs.
Generating New Ways to Address Real-World Problems in Seniors Health and Healthcare in British Columbia
Living well as we age is a universal aspiration. It is also a great challenge, particularly for older adults with increasingly complex medical and social care needs. Numerous reports from 6 decades offer evidence of failure of the health and social care systems to respond to population aging in ways that create a sustainable future for healthcare delivery. Despite decades of evidence to inform development of health services and systems to meet the needs of an aging population, action on evidence-informed recommendations or care approaches are negligible. In the last 10+ years, our team and others have produced evidence to inform health system design for aging populations. While some small-scale uptake of research is achieved, broad-based system change which is critical to meet the needs of an aging population has been minimal. The proposed C2 grant is aimed at understanding why that is. Why is this extensive evidence to inform health system change for aging populations seldom used? Our well-positioned team will engage in a series of deliberative dialogues with invited stakeholders to begin laying the foundation for new approaches to both producing and applying research to real-world problems facing senior’s health and healthcare.
Early Intervention for Eating Disorders in British Columbia: Co-Development of a Research Strategy
A surge in eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a workforce crisis. Our team’s research shows that one-third of Canadian eating disorder clinicians are considering leaving their job. Currently, eating disorder services are primarily based in limited specialized programs. However, an innovative early intervention model in general mental health settings is being developed for the Canadian context. In this model, integrated youth services play a core role in rapid response. This capacity building model has significant promise, yet it is unknown how to best support clinicians working with this model.
The project will bring together researchers and research users for a full-day interactive event, to co-develop a research strategy for eating disorder early intervention in BC. The research agenda will focus on two key questions: (i) what are the barriers and facilitators to implementation of early intervention across BC service settings; and (ii) how can we best evaluate early intervention outcomes, and the impact of this service model on clinicians who provide care for eating disorders.
The project outcomes will be integrated into a pan-Canadian strategy for eating disorders early intervention research.
Building a practice-based research learning community in British Columbia to strengthen learning health systems and health human resources
Ongoing challenges exist for attracting and keeping healthcare professionals in BC and across Canada due to low job satisfaction and working conditions. Professional development opportunities such as practice-based research (PBR) programs offer a solution to these challenges, as they have been shown to increase job satisfaction and retention of clinicians who work at point-of-care and see opportunities for practice and health system improvement. PBR programs provide training, mentorship, and funding to enable healthcare professionals to conduct small research projects that can lead to better patient experience and outcomes. However, more research is needed on the impact of PBR programs as they are not offered in all BC health authorities and there are continued threats (e.g., fiscal constraints, capacity limits) to sustaining existing PBR programs. Our convening and collaborating activities will bring together leaders, clinicians and people with lived experience in the healthcare system, creating a network that will formulate plans for evaluating, spreading and sustaining PBR programs, for the benefit of patients, clinicians and the healthcare system.
Identifying research priorities to support the evaluation of “upstream” health promotion initiatives in British Columbia
Public health interventions that aim to reduce adverse health outcomes and promote population health are more likely to be effective when they address the social conditions in which people are born, live, and age. Increasingly more public health initiatives in BC are intervening at this “upstream” level, targeting public policies, systems, and structures that perpetuate health inequities. Evaluating the impacts of these initiatives introduces unique challenges, such as uncertain timing and multiple actors, that cannot be addressed with traditional evaluation tools. Yet, policy makers and health practitioners need evidence to determine whether they are doing the right things – and whether they are doing them right. Through a series of online consultations and an in-person Thought Exchange event, we will bring together researchers who evaluate upstream health promotion initiatives, and public health research users who use evaluation evidence to guide decision-making. Together we will investigate how upstream evaluation is currently being conducted in BC, where efforts can be coordinated to improve innovation and capacity, and what are the research priorities ‘moving upstream’ in the area of health promotion evaluation.