This project will bring together diverse stakeholders to plan an evaluation of peer involvement in the High Hopes Cannabis Substitution Program at Drinkers’ Lounge. During a one-day facilitated workshop, a planning committee including peer workers, MAP participants, staff, and researchers will co-develop an evaluation framework and a plan for moving forward with research activities. The committee will identify priority research questions, outcomes, indicators, and data collection methods, emphasizing principles of community-based participatory research and cultural safety.
This project aims to build partnerships for community-driven research, generate a comprehensive evaluation plan grounded in lived experience perspectives, and produce insights on best practices for meaningful peer engagement in harm reduction programs. Outputs will include a collaborative research agreement, final report, and funding proposal to implement the evaluation. These activities will contribute to the evidence base on community-led solutions to the opioid crisis, refinement and scale-up of peer-involved cannabis-enhanced MAPs, and improving health outcomes for MAP participants.
Do you know someone affected by a traumatic brain injury (TBI)? In Canada, about 1 in 50 people live with brain injuries, dramatically altering lives and making navigation through the healthcare system challenging. Further, many survivors lack the necessary support from family and peers, which makes the recovery journey difficult. The Wolvesâ Den, part of the Brain Changes Initiative, is a peer support and education group dedicated to improving the lives of TBI survivors. It promotes six pillars of brain health: exercise, cognitive training, mindfulness, nutrition, sleep, and reducing harmful exposures. Here, TBI survivors can share stories, meets experts, and learn how to enhance their recovery. This project aims to evaluate and expand the Wolvesâ Den program. We aim to conduct a comprehensive assessment to evaluate Wolvesâ Den. This includes qualitative and quantitative methods to collect feedback from members, refine the program, and improve offerings. The funding will also support expert sessions, facilitation, the creation of TBI-accessible session recaps, and outreach to attract more participants. Our goal is to ensure the program remains a leading resource for TBI recovery, continually adapting to meet community needs.
Filipino people are a growing population in Canada. However, there is limited information available on the mental health of this population, including the factors and conditions that shape mental health outcomes, help-seeking, and access to care. This proposed project will bring together researchers, research users, and community members to co-identify research and knowledge mobilization gaps and priorities in enhancing the mental health of Filipino communities in British Columbia, Canada. Through the convening and collaborating activities outlined in this proposed work, our team will co-develop research that is directly informed by community perspectives and experiences.
In the context of the drug supply poisoning public health emergency in BC, PAN has led the Small Urban, Rural, and Remote (SURR) Harm Reduction Project to set priorities for sexually transmitted and blood borne infection (STBBI) harm reduction action in smaller BC communities, with participation from leaders in harm reduction, including people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) of substance use and HIV, community organizations, health authorities, and researchers. Overdose deaths are overrepresented in rural communities and strategies need to be tailored to communities to be effective.
Building on previous SURR meetings, this Summit will allow attendees to consider their experiences with research and evaluation initiatives, discuss successful and promising approaches, define future research priorities, and discuss potential common outcome measures. By bringing together people with diverse perspectives, we will encourage collaboration and creative problem solving to identify emerging challenges and opportunities and create space for new ideas to lead to collective impact. The Summit will offer a structured environment to develop a set of research and evaluation priorities for funding opportunities.
Approximately 15â25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage; however, actual numbers are unknown in Canada. In addition, data for various other pregnancy losses (e.g., ectopic pregnancies) is currently not disseminated in British Columbia (BC). As a result, services have not been developed to meet the growing populationâs need for integrated health care following pregnancy loss. This project will identify health system improvements to more accurately reflect BCâs pregnancy loss rates and the health care needs of patients and families. The project has three phases: (1) an evaluation of pregnancy loss data in BC, (2) conversations with patient partners and health care providers, and (3) the co-development of pregnancy loss care resources, alongside patient partners and health care providers, for use within the provincial health authorities. This C2 application is for Phases 1 and 2 of the project. The team will convene and collaborate with patient partners and health care providers to review pregnancy loss rates in BC and identify critically needed pregnancy loss resources and future research prioritiesâa critical step to designing pregnancy loss care services that meet the needs of BCâs growing and diverse populations.
Although trans people have always existed, with improved clinical care, growing numbers of trans people who have accessed gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) are reaching middle age and beyond. We know little about what to expect or how to optimize health for midlife trans people using GAHT. Better understanding the science of these midlife health experiences can reduce disparities faced by trans people, and possibly offer insights to improve well-being of cisgender people experiencing troubling midlife hormonal symptoms.
This proposed project will be a 1-year process of convening researchers, trainees, and knowledge users to collaboratively develop an agenda for research priorities, methods, language, and other key elements of science into the well-being of aging trans individuals using GAHT.
This 1-year project has 6 steps:
1. The Core Team will draft discussion guide.
2. Expert Advisory Committee will meet and develop draft research priorities.
3. Broader Community Survey will elicit feedback on draft priorities.
4. Core Team will analyze survey and revise research priorities.
5. Expert Advisory Committee will review and refine this revision.
6. We will share findings with the community, clinicians, and researchers.
Nurses specializing in critical care handle the most severe cases in hospitals. Typically, they undergo additional training beyond their initial four-year nursing education to work in intensive care units (ICUs). During the COVID-19 pandemic, shortage of ICU-trained nurses led to non-ICU-trained nurses having to care for these patients. Anecdotal evidence suggests following the pandemic, many ICU-nurses have resigned because they experienced significant moral distress due to feeling unprepared to provide safe and ethical care. This has worsened the shortage of ICU-trained nurses particularly at Abbotsford Regional Hospital.
The federal Chief Nursing Officer released a toolkit on nursing retention, but its recommendations are broad, thus tailoring to suit specific practice environments is needed. We propose this convening and collaborating grant to bring together ICU-trained nurses and managers to brainstorm strategies tailored to retain ICU-trained nurses. We will develop an evidence-informed, nurse centred implementation research roadmap to support the recruitment and retention of ICU-trained nurses within Fraser Health, with a specific focus on Abbotsford Hospital due to its rural location and unique challenges.
In rural and remote communities across North Vancouver Island, there is a growing number of older adults who need supports to stay at home. This region has a disproportionately higher proportion of older adults in the province. With changing demographics due to out-migration of young workers (for urban job opportunities) and in-migration of older adults (due to lower cost of living and desirable retirement area), keeping up with services has been more challenging than in other places.
This project seeks to build community-engaged patient-oriented research partnerships with social-sector agencies, service providers, private businesses, government partners, and people from local communities in rural and remote locations within North Vancouver Island. Together, we will gather uncertainties facing vulnerable older adults in rural and remote communities about staying at home, and jointly plan a co-design workshop to develop a plan to engage researchers, research users, and funders with our findings.
Project outcomes include 1) research agenda on aging at home in rural and remote communities; and 2) network of partners and collaborators for future research and grant applications.
In a public health emergency, government health communicators must disseminate information in a rapidly evolving scenario. In such urgent situations, reaching priority populations and addressing their needs is challenging. However, in a multicultural landscape as British Columbia (BC), considering different groupsâ perspectives is essential to engage them in public health measures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, civil society organizations (CSOs) serving immigrant populations filled this gap by implementing multilingual and culturally relevant communications strategies.
We propose to bring together communicators from health authorities, CSO staff, and community-based researchers to share knowledge on their experiences in communicating with immigrant groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal is to create a collaborative network to develop strategies to engage CSOs in public health communications in future emergencies in BC. We also aim to develop a research agenda with priority areas in health communication involving immigrant populations. Through convening and creating a knowledge basis, we will contribute to enhancing BCâs preparedness for future health emergency situations.
Over 2 million Canadians visit emergency departments each year because of adverse drug events (ADEs)âunintentional harms caused by outpatient medications. ADEs leads to over 700,000 hospital stays and cost more than $1 billion in healthcare expenses annually. These issues are especially severe in the Interior Health Authority, where an aging population and high rates of chronic diseases increase the risk of ADEs. Effective drug monitoring is essential for detecting and preventing these events. However, current reporting systems are underused due to their complexity and lack of integration with existing medical records to benefit clinical practices.
This C2 grant will enable our team at Interior Health to collaborate with researchers, healthcare providers, health system leaders, and policymakers to identify solutions and co-create a research agenda aligned with provincial health priorities using Menearâs framework of learning health system. The goal is to enhance patient safety by improving the documentation and communication of ADEs through digital innovations. This initiative not only addresses immediate local needs but also contributes to broader provincial health research goals.
