Grant: Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)

Component 1: Indigenous, Black and other vulnerable communities around the world have created community protocols/guidelines such as the OCAP Principles that outline how they would like to be engaged in research and other data generation processes. This initiative focuses on cultivating a curriculum around the best and wise health research practices that come from these community-created protocols and guidelines. This curriculum will be delivered and evaluated at Laurier for the education of emerging and interested community-based health researchers. The evaluation will serve to inform the development of web-based modules for the cultivation of ethical health research processes. Component 2: consists of a community-based participatory research project in collaboration with the non-profit, Kind Minds Family Wellness that will explore how African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) individuals within the Waterloo region conceptualize and experience mental health, the social determinants of mental health, and navigate accessing the services and supports they need. Despite being one of the fastest growing sub-populations in the region, ACB communities have reported struggles with accessing health care services - a trend we see nationally. ACB individuals have also reported challenges accessing culturally safe mental health services, including facing dismissal and micro-aggressions, indicating discrimination in the health and mental health care space. This study aims to utilize focus groups and interviews to garner a better understanding of the barriers to adequate mental health, as experienced by ACB communities. These individual and group-based conversations will also consist of asset mapping culturally competent and accessible mental health services in the region.