Innovating Care and Discovery |Partnerships

Sexual Health Intervention for Women with First-Episode Psychosis

Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, can have detrimental effects on sexual and reproductive health. Young women with psychotic disorders are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual behavior compared to women without psychosis, putting them at risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Early psychosis intervention programs provide intensive, time-limited, support for individuals early in the illness course, and present an opportune time to intervene to prevent negative consequences. With funding from the CAMH womenmind initiative, a team of researchers from Women’s College Hospital, in partnership with the Slaight Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto, hopes to understand how psychosis impacts sexual and reproductive health of young women.

Understanding the Role of the Family Physician in Early Psychosis Intervention

This collaboration with Dr. Kelly Anderson from Western University aims to understand whether people seek help from their family doctor for early symptoms of psychosis and what role family doctors can play. This information will inform strategies to support family doctors in providing care for people with psychosis, which may improve outcomes and ease the distress of those affected by psychotic disorders.

Generating Evidence for a Comprehensive Support Package to Stabilize Youth Trajectories out of Homelessness: A Tertiary Prevention Strategy

Dr. Sean Kidd has been leading the development and evaluation of supports for youth transitioning from homelessness into housing. This work includes: 

• a CIHR-funded RCT studying the effectiveness of the Housing Outreach Project – Collaborative (HOP-C) in Toronto involving an interdisciplinary team-based intervention that provides an array of supports through partnerships with multiple community organizations
• a Network Centres of Excellence grant to study transitional support models such as HOP-C across Canada, generating a method to scale this work broadly and connect it with national efforts to end chronic youth homelessness. 

Specialty Care for Youth Wellness (SCY-Well)

Building upon the Slaight Centre’s success implementing NAVIGATE at CAMH, as well as in diverse geographic settings in the EPI-SET study, a team led by Dr. Nicole Kozloff of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition, and Dr. Peter Szatmari of CAMH’s Child, Youth and Family Services, set out to adapt NAVIGATE for youth with complex mental needs other than psychosis. Funded by a gift from the Slaight Family, the project involves the pilot implementation and evaluation of the model, with adaptations informed by youth, families and clinicians, supported by a clinical integrated care pathway. Given the paucity of research in this area, this project is likely to have a high impact on patients and their families.

Toronto Adolescent & Youth (TAY) Cohort Study

Led by Dr. Aristotle Voineskos, with funding from the CAMH Discovery Fund, the Toronto Adolescent & Youth (TAY) Cohort Study is a longitudinal study of 1,500 youth (ages 11-24) accessing mental health services, to examine the developmental trajectories of mental health symptoms and functional outcomes. The study will collect comprehensive multimodal data over five years to better understand who may be at risk for certain mental health challenges to improve detection and early intervention.

Culturally Adapted Psychosocial Interventions for Early Psychosis in a Low-Resource Setting: Randomized Controlled Trial

This study, led by Dr. Omair Husain in partnership with the Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning, aims to improve outcomes in young people with first-episode psychosis by delivering culturally appropriate interventions, culturally adapted cognitive-behavioural therapy for individuals with psychosis, and culturally adapted family intervention for patients with psychosis and their caregivers. This study builds on previous feasibility trials and aims to establish the clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of these interventions as critical next steps to enable their broader implementation. In addition to examining patient and caregiver outcomes, this study also engages young people, family members/caregivers, physicians, therapists, and other stakeholders to explore promoters of, and barriers to, intervention delivery. Developing evidence for psychosocial interventions in low-resource settings is key to reducing the global disease burden for people with psychosis. The findings from this study are anticipated to enable the development of culturally appropriate interventions that could be rapidly implemented in clinical practice, not only in Pakistan but in other low-resource settings within Canada, to improve outcomes for affected individuals.