For and by families: A Digital Navigation Tool for supporting loved ones with Multiple Mental Health Conditions (MMHC).
Grant information:
Grant Title: For and by families: A Digital Navigation Tool for supporting loved ones with Multiple Mental Health Conditions (MMHC).
Funding Agency: Ontario Brain Institute
Funding Period: [22-Aug-2025 – 15-May-2026]
Principal Investigator(s): Nicole Kozloff and the Calm family advisory committee
Description: The goal of this project is to empower families with knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate the mental health system more effectively.
Together, family, youth, and clinical partners are designing a digital “Navigational Road Map” — a peer-informed, interactive resource for families, by families.
The roadmap will:
● Provide step-by-step guidance and “lessons learned” from family members.
● Highlight key inflection points or challenges in the care journey.
● Link to curated resources, toolkits, and self-care checklists.
● Include embedded youth perspectives and lived-experience insights.
Expected Outcomes
● Equip families with tools and confidence to navigate mental health systems.
● Promote authentic co-design and shared decision-making in research.
● Strengthen family engagement across CALM and OBI networks.
● Showcase how family-led KT can drive meaningful change in mental health care.
Family Voice
“We want to share lessons learned from family members — the tiny things we wished we would have known — so that other families don’t feel unheard as they navigate their loved one’s multiple mental health conditions.”
— CALM Family Advisor
●Acknowledgement Text: This project is funded by OBI
Canadian Network for Child
and Youth Mental Health Trials
Grant information:
Grant Title: Canadian Network for Child and Youth Mental Health Trials
Funding Agency: CIHR – Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) / Accélérer les Essais Cliniques (AEC) Consortium
Funding Period: [22-Aug-2025 – 15-May-2026]
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Amanda Newton, Dr. Louise Gallagher
Description: The goal of this project is to establish Canada’s first national clinical trials network focused on child and youth mental health..
The CYMH Trials Network will:
● Provide critical infrastructure to support the development of rigorous, real-world clinical trials
● Facilitate recruitment of diverse and representative child and youth populations
● Coordinate multi-centre trials across Canada
● Build partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups to accelerate treatment development and access
Expected Outcomes
● Increase the number and quality of clinical trials in child and youth mental health
● Improve evidence-based treatments tailored to diverse child and youth populations
● Enable rapid translation of promising therapies into clinical practice
● Establish a national infrastructure connecting researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and communitie
● Strengthen partnerships across provinces, research centres, and Indigenous and patient-led groups
● Enhance equitable access to safe, effective mental health treatments for children
● Acknowledgement Text : “This project is supported by the Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) / Accélérer les Essais Cliniques (AEC) Consortium. We gratefully acknowledge the Canadian Network for Child and Youth Mental Health Trials and its partner institutions for their leadership in establishing a nationwide platform that unites researchers, clinicians, policymakers, community members, Indigenous leaders, and patient partners from coast to coast in pursuit of improved mental health outcomes for children and youth.”
Narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy for self-stigma as a tertiary prevention intervention for youth with mental health multi-morbidity: A propensity-matched pilot trial embedded within a longitudinal master observational trial.
Grant information:
Grant Title: Narrative enhancement and cognitive therapy for self-stigma as a tertiary prevention intervention for youth with mental health multi-morbidity: A propensity-matched pilot trial embedded within a longitudinal master observational trial.
Funding Agency: Reasons for Hope
Funding Period: 2024-2025
Principal Investigator(s): Dr. Lisa D. Hawke and the Calm family advisory committee
Description: This pilot randomized-controlled basket trial is evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a youth-adapted group therapy called Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy for youth (NECT-Y). The therapy aims to reduce the self-stigma that youth have around their multiple mental health challenges. Participants will be randomized to either receive the group therapy or be a control. All participants will complete 3 rounds of questionnaires. Those receiving NECT-Y will also have 14 weekly therapy sessions.
Expected Outcomes
● Feasibility indicators: recruitment success, recruitment rate, therapy retention, study retention, study compliance, serious adverse events
● Fidelity assessment: NECT-Y sessions will be rated for fidelity using a standardized fidelity form
● Acceptability: To understand the experience, content, and appropriateness of the NECT-Y intervention via qualitative focus groups for NECT-Y participants and individual interviews for group facilitators.
● Acknowledgement Text: This project is funded by Reasons for Hope