Grant: Planning Grants-Priority Announcement:Partnerships for Health System Improvement

Mental illness and mental health challenges affect individuals across the lifespan. Specific populations are at increased risk for mental health problems and disorders, such as individuals living with chronic illness, youth and women who are at risk due to their social circumstances, and members of multi-cultural groups. Despite the exceptionally high need for mental health services in Canada, only one third of Canadians with mental illness or mental health problems will receive services. Our objective is to bring together an Interdisciplinary, Cross-jurisdictional National Group of researchers and decision makers/knowledge users to prepare a grant application for submission to the Team Grants in Community-based Primary Healthcare Competition. The proposed two day planning meeting will be directed toward implementing and evaluating mindfulness-based approaches in community-based primary healthcare settings with vulnerable populations who are at risk for serious mental health problems, to increase individuals' capacity to cope with a range of chronic illnesses (such as diabetes, depression & kidney disease) and/or stress related social circumstances (such as unemployment, migration, stigma), and to reduce psychological and emotional distress. Our proposal and ultimately our team grant will be directed toward generating evidence-based mindfulness practices applicable to a range of vulnerable populations that can be translated for up-take into practice and policy, and that will support mental health capacity building in community-based primary healthcare. Our focus on chronic disease populations, and at risk/vulnerable populations who have limited access to healthcare and mental healthcare services, addresses the two key priority areas of the Community-based Primary Healthcare Initiative; specifically to develop better systems for chronic disease and prevention, and to increase access to appropriate care for vulnerable populations.