Collaborative Research Initiatives
Please click on any project title for more information about our research:
An evidence-based climate-informed curriculum for youth in schools
Lead: Suparna Choudhury
Contact: suparna.choudhury [at] mcgill.ca
Description: The project will lead to the development of a curriculum supported by the most rigorous in neuroeducational evidence, that aims to function both as a mental health intervention in schools for adolescents to counter the growing eco-anxiety and as a set of pedagogical tools to develop age-appropriate awareness and engagement in climate justice. It will include an online platform documenting different pathways to global youth activism which will function as research, inspiration, discussion board, and a “networking” tool to foster global youth engagement. It will provide a forum that celebrates youth activism, while at the same documents the many challenges that youth face. Our hope is that this climate-informed curriculum and platform will offer a set of pedagogical tools, a space of hopeful engagement and a site of social support. It will also serve to disrupt individualising, stigmatising or pathologizing narratives of youth and help to build models of adolescence that recognise young people's subjectivity, agency and social structural contexts.
Autiobiographical Filmmaking and Psychological Distress in Youth
Lead: Ian Gold
Contact: ian.gold [at] mcgill.ca
Description: The well-being of youth today has lifelong consequences for the adults they become and their agency in shaping the next generation. Yet in this 21st century of rapid and incessant change, connectivity and uncertainty, many youth are struggling. Global evidence from UNICEF suggests that almost 20% of youth are experiencing a mental health problem, and mental health disorders are ranked as the leading cause of disability and premature death in the 10-24 year age group. Research over the last 25 years shows that young people are under growing psychological and social pressure, and this is contributing to psychological distress. The need for more mental health services has grown as has the demand. These needs, however, are not being met by the available services which find themselves under significant pressure, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made a bad situation considerably worse. In order to address this crisis, a range of psychological services will have to be mobilized to avoid significant harm to young people. Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic resources are essential, but these are expensive and slow to expand. It seems clear, therefore, that alternative forms of support that are inexpensive and relatively easy to implement are an essential stop-gap in current conditions. Art therapy has been an important part of mainstream clinical psychology for some time, and arts-based research is providing a new set of tools for research in the humanities and social sciences. Film has long been used in anthropology but is a relative latecomer to arts-based research. We have developed a method of autobiographical filmmaking to address psychological distress, and the purpose of this project is to trial this method in young people currently experiencing psychological distress.
Defining Youth: A conceptual framework for rethinking our understanding of youth
Team: Khandideh A. K. Williams, Raphael Goldman-Phamb, Alexa Nordineb, Jai Shah, Alayne M. Adams, Suparna Choudhury
Contact: jai.shah [at] mcgill.ca, khandideh.williams [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Description: Mental well-being in youthhood is pivotal to the health and productivity of young persons in their later years. Yet, there are concerns surrounding the exclusion of “youth” in multiple mental health dimensions, as well as an acknowledgement that the term “youth” is itself a nebulous concept which may be considered variably between disciplines. This project is, thus, a narrative review of the academic literature aimed at exploring varying definitions of “youth” to better elucidate how diverse understandings of this concept reflect the concerns and preoccupations of youth, and in what ways they do not.
EnGen: Enabling interGenerational connections to promote mental health and well- being, and co-develop climate change solutions
Team: Jura Augustinavicius, Alayne M. Adams, Srividya Iyer, Jai Shah, Claudia Mitchell, Monica Ruiz Casares, Mitchell Mclarnon, Sara Komarnisky, Jennifer Proudfoot
Contact: jura.augustinavicius [at] mcgill.ca
Description: The overarching goal of EnGen is to develop a model for incubating innovation and promoting mental health and well-being by enabling intergenerational connection. Under this project, the model will be applied to climate change action and innovation. The model brings youth and adults together through structured workshops focused around three pillars of: 1) innovation on climate solutions; 2) intergenerational connection, and 3) mental health and well-being promotion. In intergenerational teams, youth and adults will be invited to work together to identify the impacts of climate change in their communities and to co-develop a project that contributes to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or environmental restoration. Over three years, project activities will support the development and piloting of workshops in two Canadian sites using a mixed-methods approach. At the end of the project we will create an opportunity for teams from each of the sites to come together and share their innovations with each other and with global investors and policy makers.
Mitigating Mental Health and Wellbeing Challenges Among Young Populations: A scan of youth-led initiatives across Canada to inform psychosocial program development
Team: Khandideh A. K. Williams, Charlotte Evans, Maud Mazaniello-Chezol, Alayne M. Adams
Contact: alayne.adams [at] mcgill.ca
Description: This project is a systematic review of the grey literature and social media platforms aimed at understanding and describing youth-led mental health and well-being initiatives in Canada, as well as how they are formed and implemented. Given the context-specific and intersectional nature of youth mental health needs, and the importance of youth engagement in designing responsive solutions, the findings of this project may inform future policy and program development surrounding youth mental health and well-being.
Scoping Review of Young People Participation in Mental Health Policymaking
Team: Monica Ruiz-Casares, Alexandra Holtom, Sakiko Yamaguchi, Karine Talbot, Josie Tuong, Paula Molnar
Contact: monica.ruizcasares [at] mcgill.ca
Description: Young people are increasingly involved in the design, delivery, evaluation, and research of mental health services and programs. However, little attention has been paid to their participation in mental health policymaking. A group of faculty, students, and a librarian at McGill, the University of Edinburgh, and the Sherpa University Institute are conducting a Scoping Review of the literature to describe the extent, nature, influencing factors, and outcomes of young people's participation in mental health policymaking and to identify gaps in the literature in this field. The review is structured in six stages: (1) defining the review question; (2) identifying relevant studies and searching the academic and grey literature; (3) selecting the relevant studies; (4) extracting and (5) analyzing and reporting data that respond to the review questions; and (6) conducting stakeholder consultations with children and youth, policy makers, and adult facilitators of children and youth’s involvement to validate the findings, inform future research, and develop knowledge dissemination strategies that are useful in the field.
Shift: Documenting the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Peer Researchers in Community-Based HIV Research and Identifying Opportunities for Change
Lead: Zack Marshall
Contact: zack.marshall [at] mcgill.ca
Description: Shift: Working for Change in Participatory Research is focused on improving labour practices in community-based and other forms of participatory research such as citizen science, Indigenous CBR, and patient-oriented research. The aims of this project are to: 1) Explore how peer researchers living with HIV describe their employment experiences; 2) Highlight the ways participatory HIV research has been impacted by COVID-19, including recommendations for how to respond in the future. We will facilitate 5-6 focus groups online using arts-based methods incorporating objects found in the home. Through this research, we will identify recommendations for university researchers and community-based organizations to develop more sustainable approaches to peer employment so that people are less vulnerable to sudden shifts in the research landscape such as those experienced at the height of the pandemic.
Youth-led Mental Health and Wellbeing Forum: listening, learning and sharing strategies to promote responsive program and policy development
Team: Dr. Alayne M. Adams, Maud Mazaniello-Chezol, Khandideh A. K. Williams, Charlotte Evans
Contact: alayne.adams [at] mcgill.ca
Description: This initiative is a 2-day forum where diverse, underserved youth can engage and share their concerns, priorities and solutions surrounding mental health and wellbeing. In addition to this knowledge mobilization, this forum also aims to develop youth capacity to use simple research tools to inform action and advocacy.
Funder: SSHRC Connection Grant (25,000 CAD)
Partner organizations: Jack.org; Black Healing Fund; My Mental Health Matters; Access Open Minds
View the full PDF here: 
youth_mental_health_day_1.pdf
View the full PDF here: youth_mental_health_day_2.pdf
