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Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 (Halifax) _ Dalhousie University faculty members have received $7.5 million from Research Nova Scotia for two projects that will develop system-wide innovations for more supportive youth mental health and addictions care, and generate the resources needed for communities to come together and address local issues.

The teams received the funding through Focused Research Investments (FRI), a new Research Nova Scotia (RNS) program designed to advance research that tackles the province's most pressing issues and pursue discoveries that are timely, relevant and actionable for those who need it.

"Research Nova Scotia is an important partner in our mandate to improve the quality of life in the province and these initiatives do just that," says Dalhousie President Kim Brooks. "These strategic investments in youth mental health and restorative community-building leverage the expertise at Dalhousie and put the best minds to work on some of our most significant challenges."

Jennifer Llewellyn, a Dalhousie Law professor and chair in Restorative Justice, received $1 million for the project Creating Integrated Restorative Communities for Locally Engaged Solutions (CIRCLES-NS). The funding will help develop and implement the restorative communities initiative in Nova Scotia by ensuring the conditions are in place for people to act collectively in solving their priority issues.

"We believe communities facing problems have within them the people who are best positioned to develop solutions," says Prof. Llewellyn, director of Dal's Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab, which is leading the research.

"This initiative will result in healthier communities and improved well-being for Nova Scotians by making them problem-solving agents."

Dr. Jill Chorney, scientific lead for Mental Health and Addictions at IWK Health Centre and an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry; Dr. Jenny Baechler, a senior instructor in the Faculty of Management; and, Dr. Lori Wozney, newly appointed Sun Life Chair in Youth Mental Health and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie, are leading another research initiative, known as Unifying Networks to InnovaTE in Youth Mental Health (UNITE). They received $6.5 million from RNS over six years.

With a team of over 40 members and 20 partner organizations, UNITE will collaborate with researchers from various disciplines, decision-makers, youth and community advocates. They will focus on three main areas, including improving the way youth, their families and those working with them navigate their way to care; using insights from data collected across sectors to make services more effective and equitable; and, finding ways for people and groups who work in complex systems to collaborate and develop innovations more effectively.

"Improving youth mental health outcomes requires people with lived experience, different groups, sectors and organizations -- each with unique skills, resources and experiences – to challenge established norms and to encourage unconventional thinking," says Dr. Wozney.

Mental health and substance use disorders are a major threat to the well-being and potential of young people, with most mental health challenges beginning before the age of 24. That is particularly true in Nova Scotia, where rates of mental health and substance use disorders, and suicidality are higher than the national average_.

"We believe that research can have the greatest impact when it focuses not only on what we do, but how we do it. Instead of innovation happening only occasionally or within separate teams, research can help us find better ways to collaborate across the whole system," says Dr. Baechler.

"UNITE will enable a more supportive and compassionate care experience for youth and those who support them, and it will generate evidence that can be translated to other jurisdictions and societal challenges," says Dr. Chorney.

UNITE and CIRCLES-NS are two of four projects announced today by RNS as part of a $27-million investment, the largest to date and most significant in community-engaged, outcomes-driven research.

"The researchers funded through FRIs are driven to search for answers to some of Nova Scotia's most urgent questions, devoting their expertise in service of their communities," says Stefan Leslie, CEO of RNS.

More information on the research projects is available here.

Media contact:

Alison Auld
Senior Research Reporter
Dalhousie University
Cell: 1-902-220-0491
Email: alison.auld@dal.ca