Research Days 2020

During our inaugural Research Days event in 2020, researchers, health care professionals, patients, families, and leadership joined us virtually to celebrate research excellence at BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services.

Topics focused on a wide-range of translational mental health research:

• Benefits of exercise for psychiatric disorders
• Psychiatric genetics counselling
• Psychopharmacological research
• Neurological complications of homelessness
• Brain imaging
• Gender perspective on forensic psychiatric research

We are humbled and grateful for all the positive feedback, with 91 per cent of participants agreeing that the content was relevant both on a personal and professional level.

"I am truly enjoying these talks – they lay foundational work to better the outcomes for our patient population, whether it be exercise or genetics counselling, clozapine, etc."

"I just want to say that you all did a great job … I thoroughly enjoyed all the presentations, and appreciate the efforts to increase connection to clinicians on the front line"

Sessions and recordings

Missed the talks or want to re-watch our speaker's presentations again? Watch any of the Research Days sessions below:

• Monday, November 23:
• "Introduction to BCMHSUS Research Days" with Lynn Pelletier, vice president of BCMHSUS. This session introduces the agenda for the week, as well as covering BCMHSUS Research Institute's objectives, priorities, strengths and areas of focus.
• "BC Psychosis Program Research" with William Honer, a research scientist at BCMHSUS, Jack Bell Chair in schizophrenia, and professor at UBC Psychiatry. Honer has worked for almost 30 years in the BC Psychosis Program.
• Tuesday, November 24:
• "Translating genetics research into better outcomes for people with psychiatric disorders," presented by Jehannine Austin, executive director of BCMHSUS Research, Canada Research Chair in translational psychiatric genomics, professor of medical genetics and psychiatry at UBC.
• "Translating psychopharmacology research for clinical practice," presented by Ric M. Procyshyn, a research scientist with BCMHSUS, clinical professor, psychiatry, adjunct professor in pharmaceutics and biopharmaceutics at UBC.
• Wednesday, November 25:
• "Clinical research at BCMHA: Where the rubber hits the road," presented by Christian Schütz, the medical manager at Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction and an associate professor with UBC Psychiatry.
• "Neurological complications in homeless and marginally housed populations," by William Panenka, Research Scientist, BCMHSUS, Assistant Professor, UBC Psychiatry.
• Q&A and Thought Exchange.
• Thursday, November 26
• "Mind reading with brain imaging? An fMRI solution to the reverse-inference problem," presented by Todd Woodward, a research scientist with BCMHSUS and professor of psychiatry at UBC.
• BCMHSUS Trainee Mini Talks:
• "Profile of fentanyl users among individuals with severe concurrent disorders" – Jennifer Multani, undergraduate student (supervisor: Dr. Christian Schütz)
• "Subjective cognitive functioning in treatment resistant schizophrenia" – Daniah Zumrawi, summer student (supervisor: Dr. Ivan Torres)
• "Opioid assisted treatment in an integrated inpatient treatment program for severe concurrent disorders" – Javeria Irfan, pharmD student (supervisor: Reza Rafizadeh, BCMHA)
• "Exploring staff supported community outings (SSCOs) in a forensic psychiatric sample" – Karen Petersen, PhD (supervisor: Dr. Tonia Nicholls)
• "An examination of white matter imaging in chronic Schizophrenia: Comparing DTI and Myelin Water Imaging" – Peter Senften, MSc candidate (supervisor: Dr. Donna Lang)
• Q&A and Thought Exchange
  
• Friday, November 27
• "Highlights from the National Trajectory Project – a Pan-Canadian study of 1,800 persons found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD)," presented by Tonia Nicholls, distinguished scientist with BCMHSUS, CIHR Foundation scholar and professor of psychiatry at UBC.
• "Research applied to clinical practice," presented by Vijay Seethapathy, the chief medical officer at BCMHSUS, and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry with UBC.
• "Closing address" from Dr. Jehannine Austin, executive director, of BCMHSUS Research.

Research Days 2020 materials

Did you miss Research Days in November 2020? Materials are below:

• BCMHSUS Research Days Agenda (PDF)
• BCMHSUS Research Days Flyer (PDF)
• BCMHSUS Research Days Event Program (PDF)
  

Please contact us at BCMHSUS_Research@phsa.ca if you have any questions.