Grant: Operating Grant: ECI grants in Maternal, Reproductive, Child & Youth Health

One in five children experiences mental illness, which contributes to poor health and development outcomes. Exposure to maternal mental illness during the preschool years is an important risk factor for child mental illness, but there are limited programs that specifically target both parent and child mental health needs. The BRIDGE program aims to fill these gaps by treating maternal mental illness and teaching parenting techniques to improve children's mental health resilience. The program is built on best-practice approaches for improving self-regulation, the effortful control of emotions and behaviours, a critical factor implicated in a range of mental health problems. We will use an innovative experimental design to inform how mothers with mental illness struggles to manage their own emotions are linked to risk for poor child health and development outcomes. Knowledge gained will be used to improve the utility of the program by understanding how, why, and for whom the program is most effective. Factors expected to promote success include pilot data, an engaged Patient Advisory Board, and alignment of program goals with multiple health services agencies. The long-term goal is to develop targeted programs that can be used worldwide to improve health outcomes across the lifespan for at-risk families.