Grant: Team Grant: Community-Based Primary Healthcare - LOI

Despite the tremendous need for mental health services in Canada, only one third of Canadians with mental illness or mental health problems will receive services. Specific populations are at increased risk for mental health problems and disorders, such as women, ethno-cultural groups and individuals living with chronic illness. Left untreated, mental health problems and illness can result in a tremendous level of burden for individuals, families, friends and the community. Individuals seeking help for mental health problems must overcome barriers such as stigma, discrimination, and a lack of resources. Importantly, the lack of services and individual difficulties engaging in services represent missed opportunities for prevention. To meet the need for evidence-based interventions to promote mental health and well being in community-based primary healthcare settings, our national inter-disciplinary team of decision makers, knowledge users and researchers propose to develop a five-year research program to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based mental health interventions for vulnerable populations within collaborative models of community-based primary healthcare service delivery across Canada. This program of research will adopt a comprehensive implementation science approach to implement and evaluate evidence-based mental health interventions. By contrasting the implementation and evaluation of evidenced-based MHIs, such as Motivational Interviewing and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy within different community-based primary healthcare models, such as Community Health Centres and Family Health Teams, it will be possible to determine the best fit between interventions, populations and CHPHC. Mixed method approaches, specifically quantitative and qualitative methods, will be used for evaluation purposes across all studies. Overall, this program of research aims to promote equitable access to care for those most in need through an evide