FHS faculty secure seven Michael Smith team research awards

KAYLEE BYERS

Co-Lead: Rachel Bach

Community-Crafted Priorities for Wildlife Health and Food Sovereignty in ?akisq̓nuk First Nation

Historically, scientific research has been conducted without legitimate engagement with or, in many cases, at the expense of Indigenous communities. To reconcile research relationships, there is growing recognition of the need to engage with Indigenous nations throughout the research process and to pursue questions that are valued by those who live on and care for the lands where research is occurring. An area of shared interest is the health of wildlife and ecosystems; many communities depend on wildlife for sustenance and livelihoods, and, thus, threats to wildlife health extend to impact food security, culture, and wellbeing. Through two days of relationship-building and dialogue with ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation members who live in and outside of community we plan to 1) identify Nation priorities for wildlife health and Indigenous food sovereignty research, 2) develop an engagement protocol guiding future research, and 3) co-create knowledge products describing these priorities for use by the Nation, the research team, and the Wildlife Health Program (Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship). This project will serve as a basis for future community-driven research efforts and inform provincial wildlife health programs.

KANNA HAYASHI

Co-Lead: Nitasha Puri

Examining unregulated drug use among construction workers in the South Asian diaspora

Amidst the ongoing toxic drug overdose public health emergency, it is urgent to understand how to better support South Asian people who use drugs. Although race and ethnicity-based data is not collected by the BC Coroner service for toxic drug fatalities, a review of medical charts from 2015 to 2018 by the Fraser Health Authority found that fatal overdoses disproportionately rose among South Asian people compared to non-South Asians. The current proposal is in collaboration with the Surrey Union of Drug Users, a peer-led community-based organization that has raised concerns about the lack of supports for South Asian people. We seek to bring together South Asian people who use drugs with research users and researchers for a series of workshops, facilitated in Punjabi, to co-design a culturally meaningful and language-accessible research agenda and questionnaire. If successful, the proposed activities will enhance the quality of our research tools and provide insight on priorities for this population, ultimately leading to more relevant and culturally sensitive research findings and improved care for one of the fastest growing populations in Canada.

TRAVIS SALWAY

Co-Lead: Heather Pedersen

Advancing sexual health equity in BC through intersectoral collaboration across education and healthcare

Schools are a critical site for ensuring Sexual Health Education (SHE) in BC; however, recent increases in anti-SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) organizing threaten youth’s access to 2S/LGBTQ+ affirming SHE. This project brings together an intersectoral advisory group which includes a range of partners working in SHE, health promotion, service delivery, and related areas. We will establish an advisory group to identify research priorities for working across the otherwise siloed sectors of education and sexual healthcare. Together, we will co-create a research agenda that aims to strengthen and support access to 2S/LGBTQ+ affirming sexual health education. Throughout the project we will leverage opportunities for intersectoral learning and lay the groundwork to subsequently develop a range of KTE materials to support sexual health education policy and practice. This project brings experts together to facilitate knowledge sharing across sectors, identify research-informed strategies to improve sexual health education, and co-create future applied research opportunities to ultimately generate resources to support professionals in delivering 2S/LGBTQ+ affirming SHE.

KIMBERLY THOMSON

Co-Lead: Oralia Gómez-Ramírez

Identifying research priorities to support the evaluation of “upstream” health promotion initiatives in British Columbia

Partner: Pacific Public Health Foundation

Public health interventions that aim to reduce adverse health outcomes and promote population health are more likely to be effective when they address the social conditions in which people are born, live, and age. Increasingly more public health initiatives in BC are intervening at this “upstream” level, targeting public policies, systems, and structures that perpetuate health inequities. Evaluating the impacts of these initiatives introduces unique challenges, such as uncertain timing and multiple actors, that cannot be addressed with traditional evaluation tools. Yet, policy makers and health practitioners need evidence to determine whether they are doing the right things – and whether they are doing them right. Through a series of online consultations and an in-person Thought Exchange event, we will bring together researchers who evaluate upstream health promotion initiatives, and public health research users who use evaluation evidence to guide decision-making. Together we will investigate how upstream evaluation is currently being conducted in BC, where efforts can be coordinated to improve innovation and capacity, and what are the research priorities ‘moving upstream’ in the area of health promotion evaluation.

Reach Awards

KAYLEE BYERS

Co-Lead: Viviane Gosselin, Museum of Vancouver

"A Day in the Life of a Longhauler:” Using Photography as a Tool for Long COVID Awareness

3.5 million Canadians (9 per cent of the population) experience Long COVID symptoms. Every Canadian knows someone affected, whether it is a mild or disabling case, impacting family, friends, and communities. Many patients and the people who provide care for them have identified the need to increase awareness and recognition of Long COVID in Canada. Our project addresses this community-identified priority by using photography to showcase the visible realities of this ‘invisible illness’ in British Columbia.

"A Day in the Life of a Longhauler" is a photography exhibition co-produced and presented at the Museum of Vancouver that will display photos taken by Longhaulers (people with Long COVID) to highlight their daily lived experiences. To guide visitors through the exhibition, accompanying text integrated throughout the photo collection will provide information and resources about Long COVID. Opportunities for museum visitors to document their own experiences and feedback on the event and in the exhibition space will also be provided.

By using a community participatory arts-based approach we will promote education and informed discourse surrounding Long COVID to reduce shame and stigma, empower patient voices, and advocate for support.

DJ LARKIN

Co-Lead: Beverly Ho, Yarrow Intergenerational Society

Connecting with Chinese-speaking communities: Critical conversations about supervised consumption services

The unregulated drug crisis in BC is a catastrophic public health emergency. Over 6 people die each day from unregulated drugs, many clustered in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). Safe consumption sites (SCS) are an evidence-based intervention that have generated relatively widespread public support; however, support for SCS is comparatively low in the neighborhood that borders the DTES – historic Chinatown. Older residents of Chinatown have been systematically overlooked by decision makers during consultations about SCS implementation and most information resources are only available in English.

This project aims to address these gaps in partnership with Yarrow Intergenerational Society. Drawing from key literature on SCS, including a 2023 systematic review of qualitative studies on SCS co-authored by the project researcher, we will deliver Chinese-language in-person workshops and take-home-factsheets to engage with older Chinatown residents about their attitudes and beliefs related to SCS. We aim to: provide culturally appropriate public health education; promote knowledge of the evidence-based benefits of SCS; and, foster mutual understanding and solidarity between Chinatown residents and people who use drugs in the DTES.

LYANA PATRICK

Co-Lead: Mo Korchinski, Unlocking the Gate Services Society

"Safety Lenses": An Exhibition from the Community Voices on News Coverage of Police Violence Project

This proposal supports two phases of an art exhibit that brings attention to police violence as a source of public health inequity. Policing practices in Canada have long caused disproportionate harm and can extend to secondary health impacts caused by media exposure to violence. For over two decades, public health scholars in the U.S. have used a public health framing to improve understandings of health outcomes of, and the data that is collected on, police violence. This data is vital to track policing impacts, so if Canadians hope to understand the health outcomes related to police violence, Canadian health scholars will need to advocate for better information tracing and a public health approach to police violence. This proposal will support a community co-created art exhibit that examines health impacts of media exposure to police violence. The show will feature co-created works, an interactive mural, an infographic public report on the health impacts of police violence, a workshop, and a panel discussion with public health scholars. The in-person art exhibit will take place at Gallery Gachet in Fall 2024, the eight (8) subsequent presentations will share the findings to health and media scholars throughout B.C. and Ontario.