Mónica Ruiz-Casares, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruiz-Casares is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and an investigator at the Ciusss.  Dr. Ruiz-Casares has been awarded Fellowships by NSF, WWF, AAUW, Cornell University, and FRSQ. She is also a former Richard H. Tomlinson Scholar (2006-2008). Her research program focuses on the wellbeing and protection of orphan, separated, and unsupervised children across cultures; children’s rights and participation; and social policy and program evaluation. An important part of her work concentrates on the wellbeing of children without parental care. This includes the first study on child-headed households and child depression in Namibia; a large Child Protection Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices study in Central and Western Liberia; a study on family-based and institutional child care in Laos; a SSHRC-funded study on supervisory neglect in contexts of cultural diversity; and several mixed-methods studies on children home alone in Canada and internationally. Dr. Ruiz-Casares lead a study with the Mental Health Commission of Canada to inform the development of a framework for supporting parents for the promotion of adolescent mental health, particularly among ethno-culturally diverse communities. She has also been involved in CIHR-funded, multi-site studies on access to healthcare for asylum seekers, and undocumented migrant and refugee children and pregnant women. She seats in the Board of the International Society for Child Indicators and Co-Chair of the Youth-Focused Evaluation Topic Interest Group of the American Evaluation Association. Her research privileges the voices of children and youth, and is inspired by action research principles.

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Selected Publications

Ruiz-Casares, M., Drummond, J.D., Beeman, I., & Lach, L. (2016). Promoting the mental health of ethnoculturally diverse adolescents: A scoping review of the literature. Health & Social Care in the Community.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Cleveland, J., Oulhote, Y., Dunkley-Hickin, Catherine, and Rousseau, C. (2016). Knowledge of Healthcare Coverage for Refugee Claimants: Results From a Survey of Health Service Providers in Montreal. PLoS ONE 11(1): e0146798. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146798

Ruiz-Casares, M., Gentz, S., & Beatson, J. (in press). Children as Providers and Recipients of Support: Redefining Parenting Among Child-Headed Households in Namibia. In Maria Rosario T. de Guzman, Jill Brown, Carolyn Pope Edwards, Eds. “Parenting From Afar: The Reconfiguration of the Family Across Distance}. Oxford University Press

Ruiz-Casares, M. (in press). HIV/AIDS and Women in Namibia: Policy Responses. In HIV/AIDS Policies and Their Impact on Women edited by A. Parrot and J. Allen. New York: Taylor Francis/Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-74426-3

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2016). Growing healthy children and communities: Children’s insights in Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Global Public Health, 1-19. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2016.1166256

Ruiz-Casares, M., & Phommavong, S. (2016). Determinants and Consequences of Children Living Outside of Parental Care in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Views and Experiences of Adults and Young People in Family and Residential Care. Global Social Welfare, 1-11. doi: 10.1007/s40609-016-0053-5.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Kolyn, L., Sullivan, R., & Rousseau, C. (2015). Parenting Adolescents  from Ethno-Cultural Backgrounds: A National Scan of Community-Based Programs. Child and Youth Services Review, 53, 10-16.

Ruiz-Casares, M., & Radic, I. (2015). Legal Age for Leaving Children Unsupervised Across Canada. CWRP Information Sheet 144E. Montreal, QC: Montreal, QC: McGill University, Centre for Research on Children and Families.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2014). Tailor Informed Consent Processes. Nature, 513, 304.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2014). Global Mental Health: Advancing Culturally Responsive Mental Health Research. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(6), 1-16.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2014). Young People’s Views on Mental Health and Access to Healthcare: Reflections on Shaking the Movers VI and Articles 23 and 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Standing Up for Children’s Mental Health. CRAN 5th Annual Meeting [Report]. Ottawa, ON: Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights, Carleton University.

Ruiz-Casares, M. & Thompson, J. (2014). Obtaining Meaningful Informed Consent: Preliminary Results of a Study to Develop Visual Informed Consent (VIC) Forms With Children. Children’s Geographies, 1-11. DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2014.971713

Cleveland, J. & Ruiz-Casares, M. (2013). Clinical assessment of asylum seekers: balancing human rights protection, patient well-being, and professional integrity. The American Journal of Bioethics, 13(7): 13–15.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2013). Finding the balance between protection and participation: What do you do when follow services are not readily available? (pp.13-133). In Graham, A., Powell, M., Taylor, N., Anderson, D. & Fitzgerald, R. Ethical Research Involving Children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2013) Knowledge without harm?: When follow-up support is not readily available. In Negotiating ethical challenges in youth research, edited by K. te Riele & R. Brooks. New York: Routledge Press, pp. 84-95.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Guzder, J., Rousseau, C., and J. Kirmayer, L. (2013). Cultural Roots of Well-Being and Resilience in Child Mental Health (pp. 2379-2407). In ‪Handbook of Child Well-Being: ‪Theory, Indicators, Measures and Policies, edited by Asher Ben-Arieh, Ivar Frones, Ferran Casas, and Jill E. Korbin. Springer.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Rousseau, D., Morlu, J., and Browne, C. (2013). Eliciting Children’s Perspectives of Risk and Protection: How To Do It and Why Does It Matter. Child and Youth Care Forum, 42, 425–437. DOI 10.1007/s10566-013-9208-z.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Rousseau, C., Laurin-Lamothe, A., Rummens, J.A., Zelkowitz, P., Crépeau, F., and Steinmetz, N. (2013). Access to Health Care for Undocumented Migrant Children and Pregnant Women: The Paradox Between Values and Attitudes of Health Care Professionals. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 17(2):292-8. doi: 10.1007/s10995-012-0973-3.

Vanthuyne, K., Meloni, F., Ruiz-Casares, M., Ricard-Guay, A., and Rousseau, C. (2013). Health workers perceptions of access to care for children and pregnant women with precarious immigration status: Health as a right or a privilege? Social Science & Medicine. 93, 78-85.

Paccione, L., Measham, T., Kronick, R., Meloni, F., Ricard-Guay, A., Rousseau, C., and Ruiz-Casares, M. (2012). The Mental Health of Children Facing Collective Adversity. Poverty, homelessness, war, displacement. In Rey JM (ed), IACAPAP e-Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Geneva: International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2012). “When it’s just me at home, it hits me that i’m COMPLETELY ALONE”: An online survey of adolescents in self-care. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 146(1–2), 135–153 (Loneliness Special Issue).

Ruiz-Casares, M., Rousseau, C., Currie, J., & Heymann, J. (2012). “I hold on to my teddy bear really tight”: Results from a Child Online Survey on Being Home Alone. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(1), 97–103.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Trocmé, N., & Fallon, B. (2012). Supervisory Neglect and Risk of Harm: Evidence from the Canadian Child Welfare system. Child Abuse & Neglect.36, 471-480.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2012) Undocumented. In Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, edited by S. Loue and M. Sajatovic. Springer Science+Business.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2011). Building Trust, Enhancing Research: Carrying Out Fieldwork in Namibia (Ch.5). In Research Beyond Borders: Multidisciplinary Reflections, edited by Lise-Hélène V. Trouilloud and Anjana Narayan. Lexington, MA: Lexington Press.

Heidenreich, F., Ruiz-Casares, M, & Rousseau, C. (2010). The Psychosocial Consequences of Organized Violence on Children (pp.234-241). In The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic, edited by R. Lanius, E. Vermetten and C. Pain. Cambridge U. Press.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2010). Kin and Youths in the Social Networks of Youth-Headed Households in Namibia. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(5), 1408-1425.

Ruiz-Casares, M. & Rousseau, C. (2010). Between Freedom and Fear: Children’s Views on Home Alone. The British Journal of Social Work, 40(8), 2560-2577.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Rousseau, C., Derluyn, I., Watters, C., and Crépeau, F. (2010). Right and Access to Health Care for Undocumented Children: Addressing the Gap Between  International Conventions and Disparate Implementations in North America and Europe. Social Science & Medicine, 70, 329–336.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2009). Between Adversity and Agency: Child and Youth-Headed Households in Namibia. Vulnerable Children & Youth Studies, 4 (3), 238-248.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2009). Unintentional Childhood Injuries in Sub-Saharan Africa: an Overview of Risk & Protective Factors. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 20, 51-67.

Ruiz-Casares, M. and Heymann, J. (2009). Children Home Alone Unsupervised: Modeling Parental Decisions and Associated Factors in Botswana, Mexico, and Vietnam. Child Abuse & Neglect, 33, 312-323.

Ruiz-Casares, M., Thombs, B., and Rousseau, C. (2009). The Association of Single and Double Orphanhood with Symptoms of Depression Among Children and Adolescents in Namibia. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 18(6), 369-376.

Ruiz-Casares, M. (2007). How did I become the parent? Gendered Responses to New Responsibilities Among Namibian Child Headed-Households. In Unraveling Taboos: Gender and Sexuality in Namibia, edited by Dianne Hubbard and Suzanne LaFont. Windhoek, Namibia: Legal Assistance Centre, pp.18-166.