Perinatal depression and anxiety (PND;A) are known to be the most common complications of pregnancy, with 1 in 4 birthing parents being affected. Pacific Post Partum Support Society (PPPSS), a BC-based non-profit organization, has been using a peer support model to assist parents and families experiencing PND;A since 1971. Our handbook, first published in 1987 and referred to as the ‘Purple Book’, is a popular and effective tool for parents, providing essential guidance on coping with PND;A with topics covering intrusive thoughts, parenthood myths, and more. The handbook has been widely distributed by PPPSS and health authorities to parents in BC. Since its last revision in 2011, it has become clear that the handbook no longer fully reflects the diversity of families PPPSS serves. Attention to inclusive language and content that addresses the specific needs of equity-deserving groups, such as Indigenous families and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is critically needed. This update will align the book with the latest research, best practices, and insights from persons with lived experience. By doing so, we can ensure that the handbook remains a relevant and empowering resource for all parents navigating the complexities of PND;A in BC.
Program: Reach Awards
Enhancing Knowledge Translation in Pain Management Through an Integrative Video Blog Series
This project aims to expand a well-established online video blog that brings together pain researchers, clinicians and patient partners to share critical insights about pain challenges and management. Season 5 will reintegrate our initial approach by mixing responses from all stakeholders. The project plans to align with an event co-hosted with Pain BC or the Canadian Pain Society to maximize impact and outreach.
Garden of Love, DTES (GOLD) Podcast: Stories of Indigenous Cultural Reconnection and Healing from the Downtown Eastside
Holding Space and Uya’am Gaak Cultural Society are seeking funding to produce six episodes of our integrated knowledge translation project, a podcast highlighting the work and impact of Elder Rhonda Stephens and Uya’am Gaak Cultural Society to foster cultural and spiritual reconnection among Indigenous peoples living in and around Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. This project is currently in its pilot phase, with the first four episodes of the podcast telling stories from the V6A Community Garden focused on resilience, strength, and healing from the land, provisionally titled Garden of Love, DTES (GOLD) Podcast. The REACH award will help us to widen the scope of the podcast to include land-based healing activities currently run by Uya’am Gaak and to continue to engage research users with whom we already work closely. The podcast directly engages research users in the planning, recording, and production phases. As the podcast is currently structured as a limited four-part series due to budget constraints, we are seeking funding to transform the podcast into a regularly scheduled output for disseminating research findings in the form of stories, interviews, poetry, music, and field recordings.
From Social Media Advertisement to Type 2 Diabetes Remission: Harnessing Innovative Social Media Strategies to Make Remission Possible in British Columbia
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) remission, which means that blood sugar levels return to sub-diabetes levels without taking any glucose-lowering medications, is achievable for many people living with T2D through changes to diet;lifestyle. T2D remission offers new hope to those living with diabetes and empowers them to make positive lifestyle changes. Despite this potential, many individuals living with T2D remain unaware that remission is possible. Our mission is to raise awareness and provide support for people living with T2D to help make Remission Possible across British Columbia.
The “Remission Possible” team includes researchers, doctors, people living with T2D, and social media experts to help share the inspiring stories of persons with lived experience of T2D remission through Facebook advertisements. Once people view one of our advertisements, they are directed to our website, www.DiabetesRemission.ca, where they find credible information on remission and can sign up for doctor-led programs designed to support them in their remission journey. Given the popularity of social media, this strategy can directly connect thousands of people who might benefit from T2D remission and guide them to programs that can help improve their health.
Addressing stigma of dementia on social media: Collaboration, innovation, and knowledge translation
Stigma of dementia is a critical issue that reduces the quality of life of people living with dementia and their family care partners. Existing research shows that dementia education and awareness campaigns are urgently needed to address stigma of dementia on social media. More specifically, our research found that dementia-related stigma on social media fosters stereotypes, misinformation, and discrimination. How we talk about dementia shapes how policymakers, health professionals, and the public value the lives of people with dementia.
The purpose of this project to enhance dementia awareness and education to target dementia-related stigma on social media. Working in collaboration with our B.C. community partners, healthcare professionals, student trainees, and people living with dementia and their care partners, we will develop a hybrid Café Scientifique that will consist of both an in-person and online panelist discussion on stigma of dementia that is open to the general public. We will also create an infographic to counter dementia-related stigma on social media. This initiative will foster dementia awareness and education on social media to reduce stigma and enhance the quality of lives of people living with dementia.
Sharing Our Tools: A Workshop Series to Share Practical Tools for Unlearning & Undoing White Supremacy and Indigenous-Specific Racism for Population & Public Health
From 2021-2023, the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer engaged in a CIHR and HRBC funded research project called, “Unlearning & Undoing White Supremacy in the OPHO” (The U&U Project). We built and used tools to unlearn, monitor, and undo white supremacy in our structures, policies, practices, norms, and values.
This is an important way we are working towards upholding instructions we have received, including in the Truth & Reconciliation Calls to Action, Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & 2SLGBTQQIA+ Calls for Justice, and In Plain Sight Recommendations.
Elders and Indigenous health leaders have told us that our tools are valuable and trustworthy. Settler health leaders and practitioners have shared that our tools offer tangible and meaningful ways to pick up the work of eradicating Indigenous specific racism.
Now, we plan to build a series of hosted and self-directed workshops to share our U&U tools more broadly.
Aim 1 – Build workshop curriculum for our U&U Tools
Aim 2 – Deliver workshops throughout BC’s population & public health ecosystem
Aim 3 – Build a website & YouTube channel to share materials
Aim 4 – Submit tools & findings for publication in peer reviewed journals
Disseminating the Best Practices for Spinal Cord Injury Physical Activity Counselling in rural and remote areas in British Columbia
Recently, our team worked together to co-create best practices for delivering physical activity counselling to adults with a spinal cord injury (SCI). These best practices were developed using a systematic approach and were based on the best available scientific evidence on effective SCI physical activity counselling and general health behaviour change research. The best practices were developed for any individual providing formal or informal physical activity behavioural support (counselling) to adults with a SCI. Disseminating the best practices to health and lifestyle professionals working in rural and remote areas is particularly important as these professionals have limited access to training opportunities.
This Reach Award will facilitate knowledge translation on the best practices of SCI physical activity counselling to rural health and lifestyle professionals. Our team will work together to co-develop, co-deliver and co-evaluate training events on these best practices to improve counselling services for people with SCI. In turn, improving physical activity counselling services can enhance the quality of life for people with SCI living in rural and remote areas in British Columbia.
Enhancing Public Understanding of Interventional Brain Medicine through Lay Abstracts and Social Media Education
The proposal aims to create extended lay abstracts for approximately 80 research papers produced by our lab that focus on Interventional Brain Medicine technologies. These abstracts will translate complex research outcomes into easily understandable summaries for non-specialists. This project aims to disseminate knowledge away from an in-group of academics and towards the broader population and public policy it hopes to serve. Each week, trainees, patient partners, and research co-leads work in tandem through an iterative process of revisions and open discussions to produce easily comprehensible layman translations of technical academic work. These lay abstracts serve the purpose of narrowing the knowledge-practice gap by encouraging public engagement in research through their publication on open-access platforms such as X and Research Gate as well as the lab’s website and monthly newsletter. In the creation of lay summaries and KT, public and professional perception for these novel methods is to be improved, guiding their future accessibility and easing the burden of illness on a scale both within and outside of BC through the empowering nature of open collaboration with the public.
Art for connection and wellbeing: Integrated Knowledge Translation to support health literacy with and for men in prison in BC.
Our team, co-led by incarcerated Research Users, will strengthen, expand and finalize arts-based and trauma-informed health literacy content, in partnership with BC Researchers working to address overlapping public health emergencies that disproportionately impact people in prison and parole. Building on previously created digital literacy and art creation and inspiration content, our team will host two Health Fairs – an initial event in the community will welcome BC Health Researchers and trainees, and criminalized Researcher User-artists who will provide feedback and expert guidance on the accessibility and acceptability of presented public health information. Resulting knowledge will be captured using arts-based methods, and outputs will be uploaded onto Tablets and shared in a prison. A final Health Fair will be hosted in the prison, providing opportunities for health Researchers, Trainees and Research Users to strengthen shared understandings of prison health and public health emergency priorities, and empower health advocacy with and for people in prison. The Tablets will be left in the prison, and feedback mechanisms built into the software will support ongoing learning, reciprocal benefit and public health advocacy.
“A Day in the Life of a Longhauler”: Using Photography as a Tool for Long COVID Awareness
3.5 million Canadians (9% of the population) experience Long COVID symptoms. Every Canadian knows someone affected, whether it is a mild or disabling case, impacting family, friends, and communities. Many patients and the people who provide care for them have identified the need to increase awareness and recognition of Long COVID in Canada. Our project addresses this community-identified priority by using photography to showcase the visible realities of this ‘invisible illness’ in British Columbia.
“A Day in the Life of a Longhauler” is a photography exhibition co-produced and presented at the Museum of Vancouver that will display photos taken by Longhaulers (people with Long COVID) to highlight their daily lived experiences. To guide visitors through the exhibition, accompanying text integrated throughout the photo collection will provide information and resources about Long COVID. Opportunities for museum visitors to document their own experiences and feedback on the event and in the exhibition space will also be provided.
By using a community participatory arts-based approach we will promote education and informed discourse surrounding Long COVID to reduce shame and stigma, empower patient voices, and advocate for support.