Research

“You kind of blame it on the alcohol, but…”: A discourse analysis of alcohol use and sexual consent among young men in Vancouver, Canada

Health | 2023

There is growing awareness about issues of sexual consent, especially in autonomy-compromising contexts.

Intersecting transitions among 2S/LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness: A scoping review

Children and Youth Services Review | 2024

Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (2S/LGBTQ+) youth under 30 years of age are inequitably impacted by homelessness.

How an emergency department is organized to provide opioid specific harm reduction and facilitators and barriers to harm reduction implementation: A systems perspective

Harm Reduction Journal | 2023

The intersection of dual public health emergencies—the COVID-19 pandemic and the drug toxicity crisis—has led to an urgent need for acute care based harm reduction for unregulated opioid use.

Food-related worry and food bank use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: Results from a nationally representative multi-round study

BMC Public Health | 2023

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five adults in Canada worried about having enough food to meet their household’s needs.

Differentiating the role of alcohol in young men’s use of substances with sex: A qualitative study

Harm Reduction Journal | 2023

Alcohol consumption is common among young men and occurs in many contexts.

Women’s experiences in injectable opioid agonist treatment programs in Vancouver, Canada

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2023

Complex gendered dynamics, including power differentials, violence, and social norms, shape the overdose crisis and drug treatment programs which can adversely impact women’s experiences. 

Mental distress and virtual mental health resource use amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a cross-sectional study in Canada

Digital Health | 2023

This paper characterizes levels of mental distress among adults living in Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the extent of virtual mental health resource use, including reasons for non-use, among adults with moderate to severe distress.

Moderation of the association between COVID-19-related income loss and depression by receipt of financial support: Repeated cross-sectional surveys of young adults in Canada and France

SSM Population Health | 2023

To mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial resources, governments and family/friends mobilized financial support interventions (e.g., emergency aid funds) and assistance.

Anchoring to life: A Photovoice study of resiliencies among sexual and gender minority women post-suicide attempt

SSM Qualitative Research in Health | 2023

Lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (SGM) women are at high risk of suicide.

Enhancing nurses’ capacity to provide concurrent mental health and substance use disorder care: A quasi experimental intervention study

Nurse Education Today | 2023

Patients experiencing concurrent disorders (i.e., co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders) are prevalent in mental health settings and their health and social outcomes are often poor. 

Young adults’ mental health and unmet service needs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic across Canada and France

Community Mental Health Journal | 2023

While young adults experienced mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how their mental health needs were subsequently met through access to mental health services (MHS).

Using photovoice to understand experiences of opioid use among sexual and gender minority youth

Culture, Health & Sexuality | 2022

In Canada, sexual and gender minority youth use opioids at disproportionately high rates. Yet, little is known about the distinct contexts of opioid use within this group, challenging capacity to develop well founded policy and practice supports.

Connectedness in the time of COVID-19: Reddit as a source of support for coping with suicidal thinking

Qualitative Research in Health | 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is adversely impacting suicidality at a population level, with consequences resulting from a variety of pandemic-driven disruptions, including social activities and connectedness.

Widening mental health and substance use inequities among sexual and gender minority populations: Findings from a repeated cross-sectional monitoring survey during the COVID-19 pandemic

Psychiatry Research | 2022

This paper examines the mental health and substance use impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations as compared to non-SGM populations, and identifies risk factors for mental health and substance use impacts among SGM groups.

Correlates of suicidal ideation related to the COVID-19 pandemic: Repeated cross-sectional nationally representative Canadian data

Population Health | 2022

With significant levels of mental distress reported by populations, globally, the magnitude of suicidal ideation during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic is a central concern. 

Increases in alcohol and cannabis use associated with deteriorating mental health among LGBTQ2+ adults in the context of COVID-19: Findings from a repeated cross-sectional study in Canada

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2021

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, other queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2+) people are particularly at risk for the psycho-social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, though population-tailored research within this context remains limited.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family mental health in Canada: Findings from a multi-round cross-sectional study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2021

Pandemic-related disruptions, including school, child care, and workplace closures, financial stressors, and relationship challenges, present unique risks to families’ mental health. 

Cannabis Education Resources for Parents: An Environmental Scan and Critical Content Analysis in the Context of Legalization

Drugs Education, Prevention and Policy | 2021

Cannabis was recently legalized for adult use in Canada and many American states. In this context, there is a pressing need for educational resources – aimed at youth and their parents/caregivers – to reduce potential harm.

“I’m not your reality show”: Perspectives of bereaved mothers’ engagement with the news media to advance drug policy reform

Social Science and Medicine | 2021

North America’s overdose crisis is one of the most urgent public health issues of our time and parents bereaved from substance use are a prominent voice within the news media.

Enhancing Conceptual Clarity of Self-Care for Nursing Students: A Scoping Review is about to be published in Nurse Education in Practice

Nurse Education in Practice | 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is having considerable impacts on population-level mental health, with research illustrating an increased prevalence in suicidal thoughts due to pandemic stressors.

Examining associations between food worry and mental health during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada

Canadian Journal of Public Health | 2021

Little is known about the association between mental health and diminished food worry during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword”: Motivation and personal impact of bereaved mothers’ advocacy for drug policy reform

Qualitative Health Research | 2021

North America’s overdose crisis is an urgent public health issue that has resulted in thousands of deaths. As the crisis began to take hold across Canada in 2016, bereaved parents, mainly mothers, emerged as vocal advocates for drug policy reform and harm reduction, using their stories to challenge the stigma of drug-related death.

Legal regulation as a human rights and public health approach to currently prohibited substances

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2021

Information and Communication Technologies in Commercial Sex Work: A Double-Edged Sword for Occupational Health and Safety

Social Sciences | 2021

Over the previous decade, there has been a notable shift within sex work marketplaces, with many aspects of the work now facilitated via the internet.

Associations between periods of COVID-19 quarantine and mental health in Canada

Psychiatry Research | 2021

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions, including Canada, have made use of public health measures such as COVID-19 quarantine to reduce the transmission of the virus.

Involuntary stabilization care of youth who overdose: A call for evidence- and ethics-informed substance use policy

Canadian Journal of Public Health | 2021

As is the case across Canada, the province of British Columbia is in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis. In response to the devastating impacts of this crisis on youth (under 19 years of age), the provincial government is considering amending the Mental Health Act to allow for involuntary, hospital-based stabilization care of youth following an overdose.

A portrait of the early and differential mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: Findings from the first wave of a nationally representative cross-sectional survey

Preventative Medicine | 2021

Evidence on the population-level mental health impacts of COVID-19 are beginning to amass; however, to date, there are significant gaps in our understandings of whose mental health is most impacted, how the pandemic is contributing to widening mental health inequities, and the coping strategies being used to sustain mental health.

Bereaved mothers’ engagement in drug policy reform: A multisite qualitative analysis

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2021

Globally, a tainted drug supply is claiming the lives of tens of thousands of people who use drugs and current measures are not quelling this crisis.

Use of asynchronous virtual mental health resources for COVID-19 related stress among the general population in Canada: Findings from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound mental health impacts among the general population worldwide. 

Leveraging nurses to improve care for inpatients with concurrent disorders: A scoping review

Journal of Dual Diagnosis | 2020

Several challenges have been identified for patients with concurrent disorders and the providers that care for them, contributing to a pressing need for interventions to improve outcomes, particularly within inpatient mental health settings.

“Am I gonna get in trouble for acknowledging my will to be safe?”: Identifying the experiences of young sexual minority men and substance use in the context of an opioid overdose crisis

Harm Reduction Journal | 2020

North America and other parts of the globe are in the midst of a public health emergency related to opioid overdoses and a highly contaminated illicit drug supply.

Undergraduate students’ reflections on mental health nursing following practicum experience

Journal of Clinical Nursing | 2021

To explore a cohort of mental health nurses’ views and experiences in developing and applying critical appraisal of research skills to identify helping and hindering factors.

Exploring the implications of a self-care assignment to foster undergraduate nursing student mental health: Findings from a survey research study

Nurse Education Today | 2021

Nursing students experience numerous personal, academic, and practice-related stressors, impacting their mental health. Nursing programs often contribute to student stress and should incorporate strategies to support students’ mental health. 

Equipping youth for meaningful policy engagement: An environmental scan

International Journal of Health Promotion | 2020

To better address the mental health and substance use crises facing youth globally, a comprehensive approach, inclusive of mental health promotion is needed. A key component of mental health promotion is policy intervention to address the social and structural determinants of health.

How the study of networks informs knowledge translation and implementation: A scoping review.

Harm Reduction Journal | 2019

To date, implementation science has focused largely on identifying the individual and organizational barriers, processes, and outcomes of knowledge translation (KT) (including implementation efforts).

Understanding the mental health and recovery needs of Canadian youth with mental health disorders: A Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) collaboration

International Journal of Mental Health Systems | 2019

While considerable progress is being made to understand the health and self-management needs of youth with mental health disorders, little attention has focused on the mental health and recovery needs that the youth themselves identify—this despite a national priority to incorporate patient-oriented research into the development and assessment of mental health services.

Disrupting assumptions of risky play in the context of structural marginalization: A community engagement project in a Canadian inner-city neighbourhood

Health and Place | 2019

Play is a complex, taken-for-granted activity that is often assumed to be universal in how it is conceptualized and experienced. In a global context, play has been identified as a human right for all children (UNICEF, 2006).

Unpacking Social Isolation in Men’s Suicidality

Qualitative Health Research | 2019

Social isolation has featured as a significant and oftentimes all-encompassing risk factor for male suicide, yet, as an explanatory mechanism, it has not been unpacked in terms of what it constitutes in everyday life.

‘Parents are the best prevention’? Troubling assumptions in cannabis policy discourses in the context of legalization in Canada

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2019

Canada has announced that it will legalize cannabis on October 17, 2018, and as a result of this impending drug law reform the need to develop prevention resources and drug education – in schools, in public health, and for parents – has emerged as a public concern and a policy priority.

Power and resistance: Nursing students’ experiences of navigating mental health practicums

Advances in Nursing Science | 2018

Mental health challenges are a leading health issue, and while nurses should be well positioned to provide care to this client population, nurses are not adequately prepared for this role during their education.

A guide to multi-site qualitative analysis

Qualitative Health Research | 2018

The aims of multisite qualitative research, originally developed within the case study tradition, are to produce findings that are reflective of context, while also holding broader applicability across settings.

Assessing the impacts and outcomes of youth driven mental health promotion: A mixed-methods assessment of the social networking action for resilience study

Journal of Adolescence | 2018

Mental health challenges are the leading health issue facing youth globally. To better respond to this health challenge, experts advocate for a population health approach inclusive of mental health promotion; yet this area remains underdeveloped.

Photovoice ethics: Critical reflections from men’s mental health research

Qualitative Health Research | 2017

As photovoice continues to grow as a method for researching health and illness, there is a need for rigorous discussions about ethical considerations. In this article, we discuss three key ethical issues arising from a recent photovoice study investigating men’s depression and suicide. 

Developing Harm Reduction in the context of youth substance use: Insights from a multi-site qualitative analysis of young people’s harm minimization strategies

Harm Reduction | 2017

Youth substance use programming and educational strategies are frequently informed by prevention approaches that emphasize abstinence goals, which often do not resonate with youth in their lack of acknowledgment of young people’s social context and how young people perceive positive effects of substance use.

Injury, Interiority and Isolation in Men’s Suicidality

American Journal of Men’s Health | 2017

Men’s high suicide rates have been linked to individual risk factors including history of being abused as a child, single marital status, and financial difficulties.

Safety in psychiatric inpatient care: The impact of risk management culture on mental health nursing practice

Nursing Inquiry | 2017

The discourse of safety has informed the care of individuals with mental illness through institutionalization and into modern psychiatric nursing practices.

Sustaining organizational culture change in health systems

Journal of Health Organization and Management | 2016

Understanding adolescent narratives about “bullying” through an intersectional lens: Implications for youth mental health intervention

Youth & Society | 2016

This article is based on findings from a qualitative study with 27 adolescents in northern British Columbia, Canada. Our aim was to explore youths’ perspectives on the sources of emotional distress in their lives and how these are connected to peer-based aggression and victimization within their community.

Divided and disconnected—An examination of youths’ experiences with emotional distress within the context of their everyday lives.

Youth & Society | 2015

This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in a rural community in British Columbia, Canada. Ethnographic methods were used to bring youth voice to the literature on emotional distress; and to capture the ways in which context shapes young peoples’ experiences of emotional distress within their everyday lives. 

Implications for understanding and addressing mental health and illness

Nursing Inquiry | 2014

While knowledge represents a valuable commodity, not all forms of knowledge are afforded equal status. The politics of knowledge, which entails the privileging of particular ways of knowing through linkages between the producers of knowledge and other bearers of authority or influence, represents a powerful force driving knowledge development.

A narrative review of recent developments in knowledge translation and implications for mental health care providers

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry | 2014

Attention to knowledge translation (KT) has increased in the health care field in an effort to improve uptake and implementation of potentially beneficial knowledge.

The influences of health beliefs and identity on adolescent marijuana and tobacco co-use

Qualitative Health Research | 2014

Among youth, the co-use of marijuana and tobacco is highly prevalent, yet a considerable gap remains in the drug-prevention literature pertaining to such co-use.

Weeding out the information: An ethnographic approach to exploring how young people make sense of the evidence on cannabis

Harm Reduction Journal | 2013

Contradictory evidence on cannabis adds to the climate of confusion regarding the health harms related to cannabis use. This is particularly true for young people as they encounter and make sense of opposing information on cannabis.

Approaches to understanding and addressing treatment-resistant depression: A scoping review

Harm Reduction Journal | 2012

Treatment-resistant depression is associated with significant disability and due to its high prevalence, results in substantive economic and societal burden at a population level.