McGill.CA / Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry / Faculty

Srividya Iyer, PhD

Srividya holds the Canada Research Chair in Youth, Mental Health and Learning Health Systems (Tier 1). She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and an Associate Member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is a licensed psychologist and a Researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. She is a member of McGill’s Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, its Global Mental Health Program and its Indigenous Special Interest Group. Srividya is part of the steering committee for the Multicultural Mental Health Resource Centre.

Her work focuses on youth mental health and early intervention, including for serious mental health problems such as psychosis https://www.srividyaiyer.com/. She seeks to ensure that more young people worldwide have timely access to appropriate, youth-friendly mental healthcare and enjoy well-being and social participation. Srividya works closely with young people, families, and health, community and government partners to influence practice and policy in Canada and globally. She leads ACCESS Open Minds, a pan-Canadian network of youth, families, service providers and policymakers across 16 sites serving urban, rural, Indigenous, post-secondary and homeless youths across Canada.

Srividya is also a research leader in Aire ouverte, Quebec’s integrated youth services initiative. Working with Dr. Chris Mushquash and many Indigenous young people, leaders and communities across Canada, she co-leads a pan-Canadian Indigenous integrated youth services network that draws on ACCESS Open Minds’ Indigenous Council. Srividya significantly contributes to various mental health capacity building and research projects globally, including in India (where she was born), Nigeria and Bangladesh. As a psychologist, Srividya has assessment and treatment experience in India, the United States, and Canada.

Srividya’s program of research reflects her interests in using multiple quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods; engaging diverse stakeholders, particularly youth and family service users; implementation science; integrated knowledge translation; interdisciplinary work; and building sustainable, collaborative capacity within community contexts.

In 2023, Srividya won the prestigious Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research, a national prize awarded each year to one outstanding rising star researcher in the field of mental health. Earlier, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists and named on the inaugural list of Canadian Women leaders in Global Health. Srividya has received numerous other awards, including McGill’s Principal Prize for Outstanding Emerging Researchers and the Maude Abbott Prize for outstanding female faculty. In 2021, she was elected Vice President of the International Association for Youth Mental Health and nominated Champion (Research) by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.

Srividya enjoys mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, research-track residents and other trainees. Click here to know more training and mentoring with Srividya and the Youth Mental Health Collective.
 

Select publications

  1. Sicotte, R., Abdel-Baki, A., Mohan, G., Rabouin, D., Malla, A., Padmavati, R., Moro, L., Joober, R., Rangaswamy, T., & Iyer, S. N. (2024). Similar and different? A cross-cultural comparison of the prevalence, course of and factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors in first-episode psychosis in Chennai, India and Montreal, Canada. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/00207640231214979
  2. Xavier S.M., Malla A., Mohan G., Mustafa S., Padmavati R., Rangaswamy T., Joober R., Schmitz N., Margolese H.C., Iyer S.N. (2023). Trust of patients and families in mental healthcare providers and institutions: A cross-cultural study in Chennai, India and Montreal, Canada. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02576-z
  3. Singh, S., Javed, A., Thara, R., Chadda, R., Iyer, S., Stefanis, N. (2023). The WPA Expert International Advisory Panel for Early Intervention in Psychosis in Low-and-Middle Income Countries: an update on recent relevant activities. World Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21130
  4. Mustafa, S., Malla, A., Mohan, G., Ramachandran, P., Rangaswamy, T., Joober, R., Schmitz, N., Margolese, H., Iyer, S.N. (2023). Subjective quality of life among first-episode psychosis patients in Chennai, India and Montreal, Canada. Schizophrenia Research. 
  5. Maraj, A., Ferrari, M., Macdonald, K., Peters, M., Joober, R., Shah, J., & Iyer, S.N. (2023). Engaging with Care in an Early Intervention for Psychosis Program: The Role of Language, Communication, and Culture. Transcultural Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615231167067
  6. Iyer, S.N., Rangaswamy, T., Mustafa, S., Pawliuk, N., Mohan, G., Joober, R., Schmitz, N., Margolese, H. Padmavati, R., & Malla, A.  (2023). Context and expectations matter: Social, recreational, and independent functioning among youth with psychosis in Chennai, India and Montreal, Canada. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437231153796
  7. Ferrari, M., Iyer, S.N., LeBlanc, A., Roy, M., Abdel-Baki, A. (2022) A Rapid-Learning Health System to Support Implementation of Early Intervention Services for Psychosis in Quebec, Canada: Protocol. JMIR Research Protocol, 11(7): e37346 https://doi.org/10.2196/37346
  8. Malla, A. K. Iyer, S.N., Joober, R., Thara, R., Padmavati, R., Schmitz, N., Taksal, A., Mohan, G., & Margolese, H. (2022). An Observational Study of Antipsychotic Medication Discontinuation in First-Episode Psychosis: Clinical and Functional Outcomes. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 57, 1329-1340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02230-0
  9. Boksa, P., Hutt-MacLeod, D., Clair, L., Brass, G., Bighead, S., MacKinnon, A., Etter, M.Gould, H., Sock, E., Matoush, J., Rabbitskin, N., Ballantyne, C., Goose, A., Rudderham, H., Plourde, V., Gordon, M., Gilbert, L., Ramsden, V., Noel, V., Malla, A., & Iyer, S.N. (2022). Demographic and Clinical Presentations of Youth using Enhanced Mental Health Services in Six Indigenous Communities from the ACCESS Open Minds Network. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 67(3), 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437211055416
  10. Mustafa, S., Malla, A., Joober, R., Abadi, S., Latimer, E., Schmitz, N., Jarvis, E., Margolese, H., Casacalenda, N., Abdel-Baki, A., & Iyer, S.N. (2022). Unfinished business: Functional outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of extended early intervention versus regular care in first-episode psychosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 145 (1), 86-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13377
  11. Iyer, S.N., Malla, A., Taksal, A., Pawliuk, N., Ramamurti, M., Mohan, G., Pope, M.A., Schmitz, N., Loohuis, H., Ramachandran, P., Joober, R., Shah, J., & Rangaswamy, T. (2021). Fit for purpose: Conception and psychometric evaluation of developmentally appropriate measures to assess functional recovery in first-episode psychosis across geo-cultural contexts. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000504
  12. Hawke, L. D., Thabane, L., Wilkins, L., Mathias, S., Iyer, S., & Henderson, J. (2021). Don’t Forget the Caregivers! A Discrete Choice Experiment Examining Caregiver Views of Integrated Youth Services. The Patient-Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, 1-12.
  13. Guinaudie, C., Mireault, C., Tan, J.*, Pelling, Y.*, Jalali, S.*, Malla, A. & Iyer, S.N. (2020). Shared decision making in a youth mental health services design and research: insights from the pan-Canadian ACCESS Open Minds network. The Patient 13(6), 653-666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-020-00444-5. Invited manuscript for shared decision-making edition.* Youth and family council members
  14. Iyer, S.N., Malla, A., Taksal, A., Maraj, A., Mohan, G., Rangaswamy, T., Ramachandran, P., Margolese, H.C., Schmitz, N., & Joober, R. (2020). Context and contact: A comparison of patient and family engagement with early intervention services for psychosis in India and Canada. Psychological medicine. 1-10. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291720003359
  15. Iyer, S., Mustafa, S., Moro, L., Jarvis, G.E., Joober, R., Abadi, S., Casacalenda, N., Margolese, H., Abdel-Baki, A., Lepage, M., & Malla, A. (2020). Suicidality over the first five years of psychosis: Does extending early intervention have benefits? The Canadian journal of psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743720961714
  16. Maraj, A., Mustafa, S., Joober, R., Malla, A., Shah, J., & Iyer, S.N. (2019). Caught in the "NEET trap": The intersection between youth NEET status and disengagement from an early intervention service for psychosis. Psychiatric Services. 70(4):302-308. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201800319. Selected as editor’s choice
  17. Gariépy, G., & Iyer, S. #(2018). The mental health of young Canadians who are not working or in school. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 64(5):338-344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743718815899
  18. Levasseur, M. A*, Ferrari, M., McIlwaine, S., & Iyer, S.N. (2018). Peer-driven family support services in the context of first-episode psychosis: Participant perceptions from a Canadian early intervention programme. Early Intervention in Psychiatry. 13(2):335-341. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12771 *Family partner with lived experience #Senior author
  19. Malla, A., Iyer, S., McGorry, P., Cannon, M., Coughlan, H., Singh, S., Jones, P., & Joober, R. (2016). From early intervention in psychosis to youth mental health reform: a review of the evolution and transformation of mental health services for young people. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 51(3), 319-326.
  20. Iyer, S.N. , Boksa, P., Lal, S., Shah, J., Marandola, G., Jordan, G., Doyle, M., Joober, R., & Malla, A.K. (2015). Transforming youth mental health: A Canadian perspective. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine (Special Focus on Youth Mental Health: International Perspectives). 32(1):51-60. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2014.89
  21. Iyer, S.N., Jordan, G., MacDonald, K., Joober, R., & Malla, A. (2015). Early intervention for psychosis: A Canadian perspective. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 203(5):356-364. DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000288
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