Monitoring and reducing inequities in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated control efforts (e.g., reduced social contacts) have measurably affected the mental health of the British Columbia population. Moreover, social inequities in mental health outcomes appear to have worsened in recent years, owing in part to an uneven distribution of material and social resources which existed before COVID-19 and were exacerbated in 2020-21 for a variety of reasons. In this talk, Drs. Samji and Salway from Simon Fraser University and the BC Centre for Disease Control review recent empirical evidence of social differences in mental health status during the COVID-19 pandemic and outline public health interventions that can remediate unjust and avoidable mental health inequities in 2022 and beyond. Presenter bios: Dr. Hasina Samji (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a Senior Scientist in Population Mental Wellbeing in the Population and Public Health Division at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. She completed her PhD in infectious disease epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and has expertise in the design and implementation of observational cohort studies and analysis of large administrative health databases. Dr. Samji leads the Youth Development Instrument (YDI), an interdisciplinary study measuring predictors of positive youth well-being, mental health, and development in high school students in collaboration with the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP-UBC), community, clinical and policy partners, and youth themselves. The YDI elucidates upstream skill-development and structural supports for mental illness prevention and promotion of positive trajectories for young people. She is also the co-Principal Investigator of the BC Children's Hospital's Personal Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (PICS) study to measure the population-level mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Travis Salway (he/him) is a social epidemiologist who works to understand and improve the health of Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (2S/LGBTQ) populations. He is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and conducts research in affiliation with the BC Centre for Disease Control and the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity. In 2019-2020, he testified for two standing committees of the Canadian House of Commons, to inform federal policy to promote 2S/LGBTQ health equity. This resulted in the passage of Bill C-4, making it a crime to perpetrate anti-2S/LGBTQ practices, otherwise known as “conversion therapy.” In Vancouver, on lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples, Travis directs MindMapBC.ca, a 2S/LGBTQ-affirming mental health service finder, and co-directs the Two-Spirit Dry Lab, Turtle Island’s first research group exclusively dedicated to understanding the health of Two-Spirit Indigenous people. In 2022, his team will launch the national UnACoRN.ca survey, to understand the range of settings where Canadian youth have their sexual and gender identities supported or threatened.

BC CDC Presenters

1/25/2022 8:00:00 PM