Two Western University doctoral students are getting some additional dollars toward their research thanks to the Ontario branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Jordan Edwards and Klajdi Puka have been awarded $5,000 each as the first-ever recipients from the association's research fellowship program. Edwards is researching relationships between mood and anxiety disorders and migrant populations in Canada, while Puka is working to identify, at the time of diagnosis, children with epilepsy and their parents who are at risk for mental health issues.
“There’s a significant need for more mental health research in Canada, and we’re thrilled to support Jordan and Klajdi in their important studies, which we believe will contribute to long-term mental health quality improvement outcomes,” CMHA Ontario CEO Camille Quenneville said in a statement. “Our goal from the outset of this fellowship program was to invest in the advancement of front-line services in our province and we’re confident the projects we’ve selected and the individuals we’re supporting will produce valuable results.”
Edwards is hopeful his research will help identify high-risk groups and be used by upper levels of government to create policy that improves mental health services for Canadian immigrant and refugees. Between 15 to 18 per cent of all refugees require mental health services when they arrive in Canada due to past traumas in their native country.
The research being conducted by Puka could lead to future interventions and treatments for epileptic children and parents battling depression as a result of the diagnosis. Puka estimates more than 15,000 youth with epilepsy in Ontario would benefit from the targeted interventions.
CMHA Ontario's fellowship program was open to full-time doctoral students in public health, clinical sciences, health policy, epidemiology or related fields. It was emulated after a similar mental health research scholarship launched in 2009 by CMHA Newfoundland and Labrador.
