A professor at Lakehead University is one of twenty researchers who will be receiving funding from a two million dollar grant to study an e-mental health solution for youth here in Northwestern Ontario.
Specifically, Associate Professor Dr. Aislin Mushquash and her team will be using the 100 thousand dollar grant to evaluate the impact of a mobile mental health app called JoyPop.
The app is relevant to youth seeking mental health treatment as difficulties in emotion regulation are common across diagnoses. The research team has partnered with two of the largest youth mental health agencies in Northwestern Ontario to investigate the benefits of the JoyPop app within these clinical settings. The main goal of the research is to determine the effectiveness of the app in improving emotion regulation skills among a diverse group of youth on the wait-list for mental health treatment compared to usual practices.
The focus will be on those who are 18 to 25 years of age as many in that group suffer from mental health related difficulties, and in the Northwest there is both an increased need and decreased access for those services.
The 20 finalists were picked from a pool of 116 applicants who applied for the funding from Brain Canada’s flagship program, Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research, which funds projects that will lead to a better understanding of the brain.
Partners and donors include the Azrieli Foundation, Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, and Dilico Anishinabek Family Care.
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