Research helps create mental health services oriented to youth

Dr. Srividya Iyer, 2023 winner of The Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research.

The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada is pleased to announce that the ninth annual Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research is awarded to Dr. Srividya Iyer, a professor at the Douglas Research Centre, McGill University, in Montréal, Quebec.

Dr. Iyer’s research focuses on the mental health of youth. Among this age group, mental illness is a top cause of disability and death. Dr. Iyer’s research aims to create mental health services for youth that are accessible, effective, and welcoming. She also innovates in mental health services for diverse, underserved youths in Canada and globally. She works with youth, family, community, health care, and government partners to change real-world practice and policy.

She has held many key positions in youth mental health, both in Canada and around the world. She is one of the creators of the International Youth Mental Health Research Network. As vice-president of the International Association for Youth Mental Health, she led its sixth international conference in 2022 in Copenhagen, involving youth, researchers, service providers, and policymakers from 50 countries. In 2018, she was a panelist at the annual Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit in London. She also currently co-chairs the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Youth Mental Health.

In Canada, she leads ACCESS Open Minds, a 16-site youth research network and co-leads the national Indigenous integrated youth services network. She conducts research in Aire ouverte, Quebec’s integrated youth services program. She developed Canada’s first learning health system to collect and use data to improve early psychosis programs.

The prize will be awarded Dec. 5, 2023, at an event at The Royal in Ottawa. Those interested can attend in person or virtually. Information on attending will be posted closer to the date of the event.

Full announcement of the 2023 Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize: Dr. Srividya Iyer – Carving a path to equitable, youth-friendly mental health services for underserved communities | The Royal

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