Symposium Jan. 29 marks 10 years of the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research

A virtual symposium highlighting the latest research from the 10 winners of the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize will be held Jan. 29, 2025, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Each winner will make a brief presentation about their current research. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about research trends as well as the latest research in specific areas of mental health such as depression, bipolar disorder, child abuse, addiction, perinatal and youth mental health, mental health in public safety personnel, neuromodulation, and more.

When: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1 to 5 p.m. Eastern time

Where: Online on Zoom REGISTER TO ATTEND FREE OF CHARGE

Program:

Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu (2015 recipient), University of Toronto
Topic: Following Intersections Between Drugs and Genetic Risk

Dr. Rudolf Uher (2016 recipient), Dalhousie University
Topic: Depression Prevention and Personalized Treatment

Dr. Benjamin Goldstein (2017 recipient), University of Toronto
Topic: Heart-Brain Connections in Bipolar Disorder: Time for Clinical Action?

Dr. Tracie Afifi (2018 recipient), University of Manitoba
Topic: Child Abuse, Mental Health, and Substance Use in Canada with a Focus on Sexual Identity

Dr. James MacKillop (2019 recipient), McMaster University
Topic: The Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics of Addiction: A Translational Approach

Dr. Nicholas Carleton (2020 recipient), University of Regina
Topic: Evidence-Based Innovations for Supporting Public Safety Personnel Mental Health

Dr. Simone Vigod (2021 recipient), University of Toronto
Topic: Tackling Gaps in Perinatal Mental Health Care with the MOVIN Program

Dr. Sheri Madigan (2022 recipient), University of Calgary
Topic: Transforming Research into Action: Collaborative and Socially Innovative Solutions for Child Maltreatment and Mental Health

Dr. Srividya Iyer (2023 recipient), McGill University
Topic: The Global Youth Mental Health “Crisis”: Origins and Ways Forward

Dr. Nir Lipsman (2024 recipient), University of Toronto
Topic: Brain Circuits and Human Behaviour: What Can Go Wrong and What Can We Do About It?

The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation is pleased to announce the first winners of a postdoctoral research fellowship in mental health, addictions and cognitive health. The fellowship is funded by the foundation and delivered through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

“This marks the first partnership between the foundation and Canada’s federal funding agency for medical research, CIHR,” said Dr. Christopher Carruthers, the chair of the Mach-Gaensslen Foundations’ board of directors. “The foundation has previously said that Canada needs more research in mental health and allied areas. Now we’re putting our money where our mouth is. We are working with CIHR to improve its capacity to fund this vital research.”

The funding provides $60,000 annually for two-year fellowships for two researchers, for a total of $240,000.

The inaugural fellowships address challenging issues in mental health. This year’s winners are:

Helena K. Kim, a postdoctoral researcher and resident in psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Her project will create “decision trees” — aids in helping clinicians decide on treatment for older adults with depression. Building on her own and others’ research, Kim’s project will look at three scenarios in which patients’ depression poses a challenge for treatment.

Laura E. Labonté, a postdoctoral researcher and resident in psychiatry at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Her project aims to better understand psychosis induced by substance use among marginalized populations. It draws on data from the “Hotel Study” — a longitudinal study of community residents in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who suffer from severe poverty, addictions and physical or mental illness.

Congratulations to the winners!

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If you’re a researcher interested in this fellowship opportunity, learn more from the CIHR website.

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The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada is happy to announce that it will contribute to Planet Youth Lanark County’s innovative approach to prevent substance use among young people. Planet Youth is an international organization that helps communities adopt the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM). The IPM was developed in Iceland and is being used in countries as far flung as Mexico, Finland and New Zealand.

“Lanark County is the first place in Canada to implement the Icelandic Prevention Model,” explains David Somppi, the volunteer chair of the steering committee. The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada joins the Graham Boeckh Foundation and Ontario Proceeds of Crime grants in supporting Planet Youth Lanark County, which has also applied for other grants to move the approach forward.

The county, southwest of Ottawa, Ontario, takes in rural areas and several small towns. It is about 3,000 square kilometres in area and has a population of 75,760 according to the 2021 census.

Bringing the approach to Lanark County had its genesis in a 2017 community meeting about the pressing problem of opioid use, says Somppi. Several hundred people attended, reflecting the community’s concern. One attendee spoke about the “Icelandic model” that has helped Iceland dramatically lower alcohol addiction — once a serious problem in that country.

The model involves “primary” prevention — preventing a problem before it even starts. Through a series of steps, the community improves the environment for young people, in families, peer groups, schools, and extracurricular activities. Somppi says that an environment “rich in protective factors” contributes to good mental health. Research shows that this makes children “much less likely to engage in activities that lead to use of opioids, alcohol or cannabis,” Somppi says.

“We want to do what we can to make sure kids grow up healthier,” he says.

As a Planet Youth partner organization, Lanark County benefits from standardized surveys that youth fill out online and are then analyzed by Planet Youth’s central office in Iceland. Planet Youth Lanark County has already carried out surveys through collaboration with local school boards. Lanark County also benefits from access to Planet Youth’s worldwide network of experts.

Planet Youth Lanark County is closely connected with Open Doors for Lanark Children and Youth, a community-based mental health service, which provides services throughout the county. Executive Director Kevin Clouthier is also vice-chair of Planet Youth Lanark County. Clouthier also leads a coalition planning to bring a Youth Wellness Hub to Lanark County. This will provide youth from 12 to 25 with a range of services (primary care, mental health and addictions, life skills, etc.) that are currently difficult to access because the system is fragmented. The holistic approach, often called “integrated youth services,” will “deliver immediate benefits for the well-being of youth,” explains Clouthier.

One of the benefits he sees to the connection between Planet Youth and integrated youth services is community engagement, and especially youth engagement. The survey data collected by Planet Youth will also be helpful. “These data tell us what is happening in our community. Our community then sets priorities for responding to the data. Local data is the key to determining local solutions,” says Clouthier.

Somppi and Clouthier say upstream prevention through Planet Youth will complement the services at the proposed Youth Wellness Hub. Bringing together primary prevention with secondary prevention and treatment available through integrated youth services will be another first.

To learn more about integrated youth services, see “Nothing about us without us”: Dr. Srividya Iyer’s research involves youth in services for their mental health | Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada.

For more information

• Planet Youth Lanark – ​A community-based prevention model
• Open Doors for Lanark Children & Youth – Providing Person-Centered Mental Health for Children & Youth

 

This year’s winners of the annual Dr. Francis Wayne Quan Memorial Prize for the best papers published in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (JPN) were announced April 2, 2024. This year, two papers published in 2023 share equally in the prize.

• He K, Hua Q, Li Q, Zhang Y, Yao X, Yang Y, Xu W, Sun J, Wang L, Wang A, Ji G-J, Wang K. Abnormal interhemispheric functional cooperation in schizophrenia follows the neurotransmitter profiles. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2023;48:E452-60. 
  The editors found that this research provides novel insight into cellular- and molecular-level mechanisms associated with brain circuitry changes in mental illness.
• Henning D, Lüno M, Jiang C, Meyer-Lotz G, Hoeschen C, Frodl T. Gut–brain axis volatile organic compounds derived from breath distinguish between schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. J Psychiatry Neurosci 2023;48:E117-25. 
  This research found differences in volatile organic compounds from the breath in patients with major depression, schizophrenia or healthy controls, suggesting that components of the breath may provide useful, functional markers for mental illness.

Dr. Francis Wayne Quan Memorial Prize is cosponsored by the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada and JPN. The prize was launched in January 2022 to honour the contributions of psychiatrist and former editor Dr. Francis Wayne Quan to the foundation and the journal.

Dr. Quan, who died 9 August 2021 after a brief battle with kidney cancer, was one of the founders and the first managing editor of the Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, the predecessor of JPN, from 1976 to 1983. He was also a director of the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada from 2016 to his death. These experiences were among Dr. Quan’s many contributions during his busy career as an eminent psychiatrist in Ottawa.

The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada congratulates this year’s prize winners. For more information about the winning papers, see the announcement in JPN.