Hani Rukh-E-Qamar is a Psychology student and a McGill Global Health Scholar supported by William and Caroline Krishnappa Travel Award for Global Health. This summer, Hani worked with Prof. Srividya Iyer on Early Psychosis in India and Canada: Investigating outcomes and family factors.
"As the recipient of the William and Caroline Krishnappa Travel Award for Global Health, I am able to support Prof. Srividya Iyer’s project on psychosis outcomes in India and Canada. Currently, I am working alongside Prof. Iyer's research team and taking a lead on a project focused on investigating family insights and perceptions of psychosis in Chennai and Montreal by coding and analyzing data from the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). On a weekly basis, I attend both team meetings, as well as one-on-one meetings with the research team. While finishing up the coding for the SUMD data across various time points, I have also been collecting background papers on family insights on psychosis outcomes. The process of coding and collaborating with the research team has been an immensely rewarding experience. Furthermore, once I have completed the data analysis, I will be contributing the final findings to a paper on which the entire research team will support me.
The most exciting aspect of my internship has been the opportunity to learn from Prof. Iyer and her team. Although I had previous research experience, I still feel like I am learning new information that will really help me in my career down the road. To be more specific, I haven't only been able to acquire new research skills, but also learn about research with vulnerable communities as well as gain knowledge on cultural humility and sensitivity. It is really nice seeing a group of diverse researchers advocate for causes that I am also passionate about, such as developing culturally-adapted mental health interventions. Not only that, but Prof. Iyer really pushes me to excel and critically analyze each research step before the execution of that very step.
In addition, the most surprising aspect of my internship has been the process of coding qualitative data from Chennai, India, and Montreal, Canada. I have been able to learn the different ways in which families perceive the symptoms as well as outcomes of Psychosis across three-time points. At times, the perceptions of psychosis drastically differ across each community, which may be related to the cross-cultural variations of psychosis outcomes. As a Psychology major, the project really intrigues me and pushes me to learn more about ways in which mental health disorders vary across cultures and communities and also how we can adapt existing mental health interventions to meet the needs of diverse vulnerable communities."
Learn more about the McGill Global Health Scholars Undergraduate Program.
