Developing clinical decision tools and hosting educational events to disseminate an evidence-based guideline for the sustained use of patient-centered measurement data in mental health

This project builds on another study that resulted in the development of an evidence-based guideline for healthcare providers (HCPs) on the integration of patient-centred measurement (PCM) data to incorporate the voice of persons. Incorporating PCMs into routine practice is one way to attain patient-centred care. In this project, the guideline will be spread to decision makers and HCPs working in the Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU), specifically community psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery services in British Columbia and across Canada. In collaboration with practice and patient partners, two activities will be completed. First, we will develop and share clinical decision tools for HCPs to routinely integrate PCM. To increase awareness about the guideline, educational webinars will be developed, offered, and evaluated. These activities facilitate the wider uptake and sustainability of PCMs at the point of care. Expected outcomes of this project include: (a) development of clinical decision tools and webinars specific to MHSU to augment the PCM guideline, (b) enhanced awareness by HCPs and decision-makers about the guideline, and (c) delivery of person-centred care for psychosocial rehabilitation.


Team members: Anthony Neptune (Mental Health and Substance Use); Zohreh Yaghoub Zadeh (Mental Health and Substance Use, and Fraser Health); Lynn Musto (Trinity Western University); Vidhi Thakkar (Trinity Western University)

 

Tokes in the throat: Health practitioner education on the effects of smoking cannabis in the upper airway

Cannabis was legalized in Canada with the introduction of the Cannabis Act in 2018. This rapid legalization has led to a knowledge gap in doctors. Although most users smoke cannabis, few doctors know the health effects of smoking cannabis in the upper airway. In previously funded work, our team has reviewed the scientific literature and summarized these health effects, both positive and negative. During the COVID19 pandemic, innovative knowledge translation activities are needed. We propose a two-part initiative to educate health practitioners about cannabis, targeting family doctors who are the patient’s gateway to the Canadian health system. First, we will co-design a webinar with the research users on our newly launched provincial ENTCME.org platform. This event will be recorded for asynchronous access. Second, we will co-create infographics to summarize the information and launch a social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Reach and effectiveness will be assessed by registration for the webinar and pre- and post-engagement surveys. Performance data from each social media platform will also be analyzed. Our goal is to help doctors guide patients to make informed, evidence-based choices on cannabis usage.


Team members: Brenna Lynn (UBC); Andrew Thamboo (UBC); Emily Deane (UBC); Joel Howlett (UBC); Jobanjit Phulka (UBC); James P. McCormack (UBC); Dinusha Peiris (BC Cancer Agency); M-J Milloy (British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and UBC); Christie A Newton (UBC)

 

Developing educational resources to support patients and clinicians to identify and use self-management apps for bipolar disorder

Over half a million Canadians live with bipolar disorder (BD), a long-term, serious mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings from depression to mania. With optimal treatment, care, and empowerment, people with BD can flourish, but this requires more than just medication. Mobile phone applications (‘apps’) can deliver knowledge on effective self-management strategies for BD and provide real-time support. Despite high interest in mental health apps, a CREST.BD survey showed that in practice few people with BD are using such tools, and clinicians do not feel well equipped to recommend apps to their patients.

This project will develop a suite of patient and clinician-facing educational resources (e.g. webinars, videos, blog posts) in collaboration with people with lived-experience and clinicians. A co-ordinated social media strategy will be developed to increase awareness of these resources.

Expected outcomes include: patients will better understand the potential benefits and risks of mental health apps; patients will improve their digital health literacy by learning strategies to identify safe and secure mental health apps; clinicians will improve knowledge about app evaluation frameworks and informed decision making.


Team members: Natalie Dee (CREST.BD); Emma Morton (UBC); John Torous (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre); Rosemary Xinhe Hu (CREST.BD); Caden Poh (UBC); Laura Lapadat (UBC); Linda Yang (UBC)

 

The safer washroom campaign: Disseminating best practices in the public and private sectors

For people who use substances who cannot or do not have access to a supervised consumption site, washrooms can provide a private space that feels safe. However, when people use in washrooms, they can face serious risks including the risks of overdosing alone and potentially not receiving life-saving help in time. There are ways of making washrooms safer, but it can be difficult to know how. Best practices have been developed in the past few years to provide guidance to community-based organizations, businesses, health care institution, and other settings where washrooms are publicly accessible. Despite best efforts to make these best practices known, gaps remain. This project is designed to make share this information more broadly and improve washroom safety across the province. To make this happen, we plan on conducting consultation with various groups and developing a safer washroom campaign.


Team members: Shannon Riley (Vancouver Coastal Health); Kali Sedgemore (Vancouver Coastal Health); Trevor Goodyear (University of British Columbia)

 

HIV In My Day: Destigmatizing HIV through theatre, living history, and storytelling

Despite advancements in HIV treatment and care, HIV stigma remains a challenge today. “HIV In My Day” is a community-based research project that has collected and digitally archived 100+ interviews with long-term HIV survivors and caregivers across British Columbia. It is crucial to share these stories more widely with communities who are still disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS as well as healthcare providers who serve these communities in order to continue destigmatizing HIV.

In collaboration with “In My Day”, a verbatim theatre production adapted from these stories, our proposed knowledge translation activities will be part of a larger arts-based event in December 2022 at The Cultch in Vancouver, including post-show interactive audience engagement; multimedia presentations of the findings from “HIV In My Day”; intergenerational forums with “HIV In My Day” participants; storytelling workshops for people living with HIV; performances of the “Viral Monologues”.

Together these activities will benefit attendees, including community members and healthcare providers, by teaching HIV history, building storytelling skills, and fostering intergenerational dialogue around HIV within and between affected communities.


Team members: Ben Klassen (Community-Based Research Centre); Michael Montess (University of Victoria); Kelli Stajduhar (University of Victoria); John Paul Catungal (University of British Columbia); Leah Tidey (University of Victoria); Rick Waines

 

Civility matters: Co-creation of an online toolkit for long-term care home staff

In long-term care (LTC) homes, the number of staff working on a shift is essential to quality care provision; however, it is increasingly apparent that who is on shift is just as important. Quality care is difficult to achieve when staff do not routinely engage with one another in a positive, or civil, manner. Our research, conducted pre-pandemic, revealed the impact of uncivil workplace behaviours on care delivery and staff well-being, an impact that has only been exacerbated by COVID-19. A positive workplace culture requires the cooperation of front-line and leadership staff and access to professional development opportunities that help staff instill and contribute to a collaborative and respectful workplace. Comprised of researchers and union and industry partners, our project team will co-create an online toolkit to support staff to address workplace (in)civility in LTC and promote supportive and collaborative workplace relationships at their worksites.

Specific objectives include: 1) Raising awareness about the nature and impact of workplace incivility in LTC on staff well-being and care delivery; 2) Creating opportunities for staff to engage with practice-based scenarios and resources for addressing workplace (in)civility.


Team members: Saleema Dhalla (SafeCare BC); Jennifer Lyle (SafeCare BC); Leah Laing (UBC); Heather Cooke (UBC); Rhonda Croft (BC Nurses’ Union); Hanif Karim (BC Nurses’ Union); Lisa Kelly (Sienna Senior Living); Cina Oppel (BC Government & Service Employees’ Union); Megan Scott (BC Government & Service Employees’ Union); Georgina Hackett (Hospital Employees’ Union); Anne Bull (Hospital Employees’ Union)

 

Co-development of an educational toolkit to integrate palliative approaches to care for workers in inner city settings

People who are vulnerable and marginalized such as those who have substance use disorders, mental illness, or are homeless are at high risk of death. Our research shows that they could benefit from palliative approaches to care but the inner city workers who most care for them like housing and harm reduction workers do not have much support and knowledge related to palliative approaches to care. We have worked for several years with a community-based action team to integrate palliative approaches to care into their work and have developed an educational toolkit prototype with them. In this Reach project, we propose to the funds to complete our user-centered design to ensure that toolkit is developed in ways that are relevant and useable for the intended audiences. Specifically, we will (a) turn the toolkit content into user friendly resources, videos and graphics, (b) engage community-based peer reviewers to provide feedback, and (c) develop and implement a dissemination plan for uptake. We anticipate with better prepared and supported inner city workers, people who are vulnerable and marginalized will have better outcomes at the end-of-life such as access to palliative care services when needed.


Team members: Jonathan Schmid (Victoria Hospice Society); Ashley Mollison (University of Victoria); Kara Whitlock (University of Waterloo); Piotr Burek (Vancouver Island Drug Checking Project); Robyn Kyle (Victoria Cool Aid Society); Annie Do (Victoria Hospice Society)

 

Strengthening Cultural Identity: Supporting urban Indigenous youth-in-care to access culture through self-determined health and wellness in lək̓ʷəŋən territory

The Strengthening Cultural Identity project will connect urban Indigenous youth in care to language learning resources and culturally centered coming of age activities in lək̓ʷəŋən territory (Victoria, British Columbia). These elements were identified by youth participants during the 2018-2021 Coming of Age Project, as a way to strengthen their Indigenous identities. Building on the partnership between Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services (SCCFS) and the University of Victoria, we are proposing a knowledge sharing project that will support two of SCCFS’s youth groups, the Xe’Xe’tuls’thut (leadership) group and the Youth Advisory Council, in determining how they would like to integrate language and cultural teachings into their lives.

We will do this by:

  1. Translating knowledge sharing resources into lək̓ʷəŋən’anthun (Lewungen’athun) to honour the territory where we work, and nuučaan̓uɫ (Nuu chah nulth), to recognize the diversity of the urban Indigenous youth-in-care community.
  2. Working with the youth to facilitate access to language learning (e.g. the KS tools, language resources/teachers) and cultural activities in self-determined ways
  3. Celebrating what we have learned at a community feast.

Team members: Jennifer Chuckry (Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services); Andrea Mellor (University of Victoria)

Participatory Indigenous nursing knowledge translation project: Co-creating Indigenous wellness support networks by and for Indigenous healthcare professionals in interior British Columbia

The proposed Participatory Indigenous Nursing Knowledge Translation Project will provide opportunities for stakeholders from British Columbia’s health authorities, nursing educational institutes, professional nursing organizations and associations to participate in the integrated knowledge translation stakeholder’s forum to establish an Indigenous Health Professional’s (IHP) Network. The intent is to cocreate Indigenous wellness supports by and for Indigenous healthcare professionals to decolonize healthcare systems and structures. This work is in response to the Calls for Action on Truth and Reconciliation, and to respond to Interior Health and FNHA mandated strategy to address Indigenous workforce issues. A key outcome of the integrated knowledge translation activities will be the collaboration of community members, with multidisciplinary Indigenous health professionals coming together to address the growing inequities, racism, and discrimination. Through Indigenous health nursing leadership and guidance with Indigenous knowledge holders our team will co-create Indigenous wellness support systems, through policy development, and educational training in culturally informed ways through Intergenerational Indigenous mentorship.


Team members: Judy Sturm (Interior Health); Rose Mylnek (Thompson Rivers University); Christina (University of Victoria); Melba D’Souza (Thompson Rivers University); Colleen Seymour (Tk’emlups Knowledge Holder); Leslie Bryant (Interior Health); Tracy Mooney (Interior Health); Shirlie Delacherois (Interior Health); Shesley Callison-Hanna (Thompson Rivers University)

Raising awareness of conflict of interest in patient-oriented research

POR is an increasingly popular approach to research, involving meaningful partnerships with patients to improve the relevance and use of research. There is an increasing focus on how teams can best support partnerships, including fair compensation for patients partners and greater openness about research funding practices. This is particularly important when research is funded by private companies or donors, as COI can arise and may affect the ethical conduct or quality of the research.

A COI can happen when a research team member stands to gain status or financial advantages as a result of a research partnership and teams are faced with the need to find ways to address these. However, little is known about how to manage COI in POR. Our previous research has explored the research literature, as well as the perspectives of those engaged in POR. We found few examples of how COI can be managed and a need for practical resources and tools. In this planned research, we will work together to create a guidebook, including resources and tools, to help POR teams identify and manage COI. Designed to reflect needs of diverse audiences, we will share these widely to raise awareness, support best practices, and evaluate its usefulness.


Team members: Marc Bains (HeartLife); Stirling Bryan (BC Academic Health Science Network); Alison Hoens (UBC); Michelle Mujoomdar (Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology); Trina Fyfe (University of Northern British Columbia); Iva Cheung (Freelance); Erin Michalak (UBC and BC SUPPORT Unit); Justin Otteson (BC SUPPORT Unit); Haydn Molcak (UBC); Daman Kandola (University of Northern British Columbia); Jennifer Brown (UBC); Nassim Adhami (University of Northern British Columbia); Shayna Dolan (University of Northern British Columbia)