About

The BC Alliance for Monitoring Mental Health Equity (BC AMMHE) is a coalition of researchers based in British Columbia who are interested in promoting mental health equity. By equity, we mean a commitment to reduce and ultimately eliminate unjust and avoidable differences in health status by social positions and identities. We aim to track emerging and evolving research studies from BC that provide data on mental health (including substance use), with particular attention to those who experience social and/or structural barriers to health or healthcare (e.g., youth, 2S/LGBTQ+ people, Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour, and those with pre-existing mental health concerns). Unfortunately, long-entrenched mental health inequities have only been exacerbated during the 2020-21 period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we created the BC AMMHE to ensure that emerging research findings are widely available to policymakers, healthcare practitioners, researchers, and the public, and distilled in a way that is applicable to both practice and policy.

We have created an ongoing and up-to-date data monitoring tool that summarizes ongoing studies, preliminary findings, and recommendations, with the goal of ensuring research findings are available to policymakers in a timely manner, and ultimately promoting time-sensitive action and broad advocacy work for mental health equity. The recommendations listed on this website are informed by preliminary results of the research findings included on the site.

While we aim to be exhaustive in the studies presented here, this website serves to prioritize and integrate sources of information that correspond to the following research questions:

How, where, and why do population-level mental health service needs persist in BC?
Which equity-seeking groups are disproportionately affected by mental health service needs in BC? and,
What inequities in access to digital mental health supports persist in BC?

BC AMMHE Researchers

Angel Kennedy

Affiliations: Simon Fraser University
Related Studies: Service provider perspectives on tools to improve access to mental health supports for sexual and gender diverse populations: A qualitative research study
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/lgbtq2roundtable/people/meet-the-research-team.html

Dr. Chris Richardson

Affiliations: University of British Columbia; Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes at St. Paul’s Hospital
Related Studies: Trauma at the Root: Exploring Paths to Healing with Formerly Incarcerated Men
Website: https://www.cheos.ubc.ca/team-member/chris-g-richardson/?teamCat=56

Dr. Emily Jenkins

Affiliations: University of British Columbia
Related Studies: Assessing the Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health National Monitoring Survey
Website: https://nursing.ubc.ca/our-people/emily-jenkins

Dr. Erin Michalak

Affiliations: University of British Columbia; APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health; BC SUPPORT Unit
Related Studies: TEAM-CAP
Website: https://psychiatry.ubc.ca/person/erin-michalak/;https://www.vchri.ca/researchers/erin-michalak

Dr. Hasina Samji

Affiliations: Simon Fraser University; BC Centre for Disease Control; BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Related Studies:
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/hasina-samji.html; https://bcchr.ca/hsamji; http://www.bccdc.ca/our-research/people/hasina-samji

Dr. Jill Murphy

Affiliations: University of British Columbia; APEC Digital Hub for Mental Health
Related Studies: TEAM-CAP
Website: https://mood.med.ubc.ca/our-researchers/dr-jill-murphy-global-mental-health-community-care/

Dr. Julia Smith

Affiliations: Simon Fraser University
Related Studies: Gender & COVID-19 Research Project
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/julia-smith.html

Dr. Pierre-Julien Coulaud

Affiliations: British Columbia Centre on Substance Use: University of British Columbia
Related Studies: Heads Together/Tête-à-Tête; FOCUS;
Website: https://www.bccsu.ca/blog/team/dr-pierre-julien-coulaud/

Dr. Rod Knight

Affiliations: University of British Columbia, BC Centre on Substance Use; Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity
Related Studies: SUKI-Wave 2; Interventions-Substance Use Rolling Cohort; FOCUS; Heads Together/Tête-à-Tête
Website: http://www.cgshe.ca/about-us/our-team/directors-researchers/dr-rod-knight/; https://www.spph.ubc.ca/person/rod-knight/; https://www.bccsu.ca/blog/team/dr-rod-knight/

Sarah Watt

Affiliations: BC Centre for Disease Control, Simon Fraser University
Related Studies: Service provider perspectives on tools to improve access to mental health supports for sexual and gender diverse populations: A qualitative research study; Sex in the Time of COVID
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/lgbtq2roundtable/people/meet-the-research-team.html

Dr. Skye Barbic

Affiliations: University of British Columbia; Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes
Website: https://www.cheos.ubc.ca/team-member/skye-barbic/; https://osot.ubc.ca/directory/skye-barbic/

Dr. Travis Salway

Affiliations: Simon Fraser University, BC Centre for Disease Control, Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity, and Community-Based Research Centre
Related Studies: Service provider perspectives on tools to improve access to mental health supports for sexual and gender diverse populations: A qualitative research study; Sex in the Time of COVID
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/travis-salway.html

Dr. Kiffer Card

Affiliations: Simon Fraser University, The Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, The Institute for Social Connection, The Mental Health and Climate Change, and The Community-Based Research Centre
Website: https://www.sfu.ca/fhs/about/people/profiles/kiffer-card.html