Grant: Catalyst Grant: Partnering for Impact - General Pool

Depression affects millions of Canadians and is one of the leading causes of disability and lost productivity. While effective treatments exist, many people struggle to access help because of long wait times, high costs, or living in areas with few mental-health services. These barriers are even greater for people from equity-deserving groups, such as Indigenous, racialized, immigrant, LGBTQ2S+, and low-income communities. This project will work with the Mood Disorders Society of Canada (MDSC) and people with lived and living experience of depression to co-design and expand MIRA (Mental Health Virtual Assistant), a digital companion that helps people find information and connect to trustworthy supports. MIRA was originally created as a "wayfinding" tool to guide users to mental-health resources. Now, with community input, it will be developed into a more comprehensive and compassionate assistant that supports day-to-day well-being. The enhanced version of MIRA will include four interconnected helpers, or "agents": an Education Agent to explain mental-health topics in plain language; a Distress Agent to offer coping strategies and encouragement; a Cognition Agent to provide reminders and tools for focus and memory; and a Navigation Agent to link people with reliable local and online supports. Over one year, the project will use workshops, interviews, and user testing to ensure MIRA's tone, language, and functions are safe, inclusive, and culturally relevant. Technical safeguards, like privacy-by-design, encryption, and bias monitoring, will protect users' data and ensure fairness. By combining lived experience and ethical AI design, this project will create an accessible, trustworthy digital tool that helps Canadians manage depression and supports more equitable access to care, wherever and whenever people need it.