Watch this webinar recording to hear about innovative practices and resources for knowledge translation. In this webinar, presented on Thursday, June 5, 2025, you’ll hear from the three projects that received the 2024 Paula Goering Collaborative Research and Knowledge Translation Award. These projects demonstrated exemplary integrated and knowledge translation work in mental health research.
Originally live streamed: Thursday, June 5, 2025
Download the Presentation Slides
About the Projects and Presenters
Brain Connections
Presenters: Iris Balodis, McMaster University; Deirdre Querney, City of Hamilton's Alcohol, Drug & Gambling Services
Brain Connections provides a self-guided, web-based program explaining difficult concepts and motivating people to reduce gambling and gaming harms. Brain Connections fills a knowledge and resource gap by providing resources co-developed by a gambling disorders neuroscientist and a clinician. These resources include a website, a short video, and quick answers to commonly-asked questions about gambling and the brain. They also expanded again to resources focused on the intersection between youth video gaming and gambling.
By the end of this session, attendees will:
- Understand the interplay between gambling and gaming
- Learn about gambling and gaming harms related to youth and emerging adults
- Consider how the Brain Connections tool can be used in their work setting.
Mental Health Outcomes and Needs of Birthing Parents with Disabilities: From Evidence to Action
Presenter: Hilary Brown, University of Toronto
Birthing parents with disabilities are more likely to enter pregnancy with a mental illness compared to birthing parents who don’t have disabilities. They also are more likely to experience new or recurring mental illness in pregnancy and postpartum, and to have serious mental health outcomes. The Mental Health Outcomes and Needs of Birthing Parents with Disabilities: From Evidence to Action project team co-developed, with community partners, several resources to support the well-being of birthing parents with disabilities during and after pregnancy.
By the end of this session, attendees will:
- Learn about a community-engaged research study that examined the perinatal mental health of women with disabilities
- Access a series of resources that were created to support perinatal wellbeing among people with disabilities and disability-affirming care by their providers
- Identify the processes of successful community engagement in this project, including co-creation of knowledge with peer researchers with disabilities.
Project resources:
Supporting Alternate Level of Care Patients with a Dual Diagnosis to Transition from Hospital to Home
Presenters: Avra Selick, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH); Dianna Cochrane, Ontario Ministry of Health
Adults with a dual diagnosis (ie, developmental disability and mental illness) are more likely to experience alternate level of care (ALC) hospitalizations (ie, they no longer require hospital care but cannot be discharged, often due to a lack of appropriate community supports). These prolonged hospitalizations can lead to poor patient outcomes, higher system costs, and delayed access to care. To address this challenge, the Supporting Alternative Level of Care Patients with a Dual Diagnosis to Transition from Hospital to Home project team developed practice guidance, which outlines the components needed to support successful transitions. This guidance was co-developed with policy, clinical, patient and family partners to ensure the guidance was relevant, useful and widely shared.
By the end of this session, attendees will:
- Identify challenges that contribute to ALC hospitalizations for patients with a dual diagnosis and strategies that can support successful transitions out of hospital for this population
- Recognize ways in which research, policy, clinical and family partners can work together to co-develop practice recommendations
- Learn about knowledge translation strategies that can be used to promote awareness and utilization of research among diverse knowledge users including clinicians, families, people with disabilities, and policy makers.
Presenter Bios
Dr. Iris M. Balodis is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. She is the associate director of the Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research, the associate director of the Centre for Clinical Neuroscience as well as a faculty associate with the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Director of the Integrated Neuroscience of Motivation and Change (IN-MaC) Laboratory. As one of the founding members of the Ontario Gambling Research Society (OGRS), she is working with colleagues across the province to advance the theory, research and practice of problem gambling research.
Deirdre Querney is a registered social worker, certified problem gambling counsellor and the Canadian Certified Addiction Counsellor with the City of Hamilton’s Alcohol, Drug & Gambling Services. Deirdre has over 25 years of experience in providing individual and group outpatient addiction treatment services. Since 2003, she has also taught in McMaster University’s Professional Addiction Studies Program. Deirdre was awarded, along with her project partner Dr. Iris Balodis, the 2023 International Council on Responsible Gambling’s Scientific Achievement Award for their work on Brain Connections.
Dr. Hilary Brown is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a senior adjunct scientist at ICES. Dr. Brown holds a Canada Research Chair in Disability and Reproductive Health. Her research uses community-engaged approaches to examine the reproductive health of women with disabilities across the life course, with a focus on maternal mental health. Dr. Brown is guest editor of a special collection on disability and women’s mental health for Archives of Women’s Mental Health.
Dr. Avra Selick is a scientist and early-career researcher in the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Avra’s work focuses how to design and implement accessible and equitable healthcare service models for adults with developmental disabilities and other vulnerable populations. Avra was the research lead for the Supporting Alternative Level of Care (ALC) Patients with a Dual Diagnosis to Transition from Hospital to Home project..
Dianna Cochrane is a manager in the Mental Health and Addiction Programs Branch at Ontario’s Ministry of Health, where she leads initiatives supporting the province’s most vulnerable clients, including those with a dual diagnosis. Her career spans various roles in developmental disability services, from residential counselling to hospital to government policy. She has held leadership positions focused on improving quality of care through policy and program development, with a focus on cross-sector systems and services.
About the Paula Goering Collaborative Research and Knowledge Translation Award
The bi-annual Paula Goering award is sponsored by the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry and CAMH Foundation. This year, the committee recognizes three applications demonstrating exceptional integrated knowledge translation (IKT) work. This bi-annual Paula Goering award is sponsored by the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry and the CAMH Foundation. The award fund of $4,000 will be distributed equally among the three project teams.