Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

For people experiencing homelessness, accessing healthcare poses significant barriers including a lack of proof of insurance, access to transportation as well as institutionalized stigma. People who are experiencing homelessness also have rates of addiction and mental illness nearly 10 times higher than the general public. This creates unique considerations for providing mental healthcare to this population. One way to improve access and delivery of care is to bring care to people where they are at and on their own terms, a model known as street psychiatry. This aim of this proposal is to support the establishment of the Street Psychiatry Annual Meeting and create a network of experts interested in street psychiatry research. The proposed meeting will take place over 1.5 days in Ottawa, Canada and will connect researchers, trainees, lived experience partners and research professionals with an interest in street psychiatry. The conference will involve invited and curated presentations on key topics of interest for research collaboration, such as trauma informed care, safe supply programs and working with people with lived experience. The full day will consist of presentations sessions and will be followed by a half day of small group networking sessions where senior researchers can connect with early career researchers, graduate students and research professionals who have an interest in street psychiatry clinical trials. Building capacity for large, multi-site trials across Ontario and Canada is critical to establish a high-quality body of evidence. We hope that this meeting will lay the foundation to support growing research in this area, including mentorship of early career researchers, an established pathway for lived experience partner involvement and a pool of potential supervisors for trainees.