Grant: Catalyst Grant: Cannabis/Mental Health - Cannabis use and early phase psychosis

Regular cannabis use is widely recognized as a significant risk factor for relapse of psychosis among young people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. Therapies that improve cannabis use disorder better than standard treatment do not exist. Furthermore, few studies examine what young people with early-phase psychosis from Black racialized communities understand about this relationship - even though they may be the ones most at risk. Innovative strategies that raise awareness of this relationship could represent a significant contribution to solving these problems. This project will be carried out with the Free For All Foundation, serving Black racialized communities. Objectives: This project will evaluate the use of new video games - The Back to Reality Video Game SERIES (SERIES), featuring a Black youth as the hero, with emerging psychosis who uses cannabis. To this end, this project explores what young people with early-phase psychosis/cannabis use disorder understand about the impact of cannabis on their psychosis experiences before and after playing the SERIES. Methods: Participants will meet criteria for a first episode of a psychotic disorder and a cannabis use disorder. Participants will be Black African (24 people), Black Caribbean (24) descent {English speaking], or any ethnicity French-speaking (10). We will invite them to tell us their stories about their psychosis and cannabis experiences before playing the SERIES. After playing either the SERIES or a control game, a quiz will measure their knowledge about the relationship between cannabis and psychosis. Impact: The voices of young people from racialized communities will generate new knowledge about the meaning of race, cannabis use and psychosis to inform use of a new KT product. It will deal with gaps in knowledge about cannabis use for people experiencing early-phase psychosis from Black communities, possibly leading to new strategies to improve cannabis use disorder in this population.