Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Mental health (MH) conditions and illnesses are a serious burden. In Canada, one in five individuals experiences a MH problem or illness in any given year leading to a direct cost of $51 billion annually (Health Canada 2002; Lim 2008). Moreover, timely detection and access to care remains a challenge despite availability of effective treatments for common MH conditions. This is concerning given that depression will be the biggest health burden in Canada by 2030. With the onset of global economic recession, MH needs are on the rise and especially among vulnerable communities. Yet, system resources are constrained. This calls for innovative and efficient ways to engage patients and clinicians to address socially sensitive MH issues in a timely manner. To this end, user-friendly interactive eHealth technologies in multidisciplinary primary care settings can facilitate risk assessment, patient education, and referral making; empowering patients and clinicians simultaneously. The proposed five-year research will examine the provision of MH care and health outcomes by incorporating multi-language, person-centered, interactive, computer-assisted health-risk assessment (HRA) tools in the waiting-room of primary care settings with multidisciplinary teams (e.g. Community Health Centers, Nurse Practitioner Led clinic, and Family Health Teams). This builds on and integrates my completed and ongoing research on access to primary care; mental health/violence; eHealth; and vulnerable communities. I envision expansion of such HRA facilitated models of care by including several MH conditions and specific groups while incorporating mobile technological advances and creating data linkages. The implications range from the graduate training to the system level diffusion of effective models of care for timely detection and treatment of mental illnesses while creating capacity to measure MH and identify trends at the population level to inform policies for optimal resource allocation.