Winners of 2021-22 MHRC-NBHRF New Brunswick Mental Health Impact Grant

Read about the two winners of our $50,000 New Brunswick Mental Health Impact Grants, funded in partnership with the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation

Project 1: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy through Tele-Counselling for Caregivers in New Brunswick

Lead Investigators: Dr. Pamela Durepos, University of New Brunswick and Chandra MacBean, Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick

There is an urgent need for accessible mental health services amongst family caregivers of persons living with dementia, particularly in New Brunswick (NB) where the number of adults over 65 and caregivers continues to rise. Only 57% of New Brunswickers who report having poor mental health access services due to barriers including: cost, transportation, stigma and lack of services in rural locations.

Fortunately, evidence for the positive effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for caregivers is growing and barriers to service use can be overcome through tele-health (i.e., remote delivery of health services through technology).

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and potential effect of the ACT telecounselling program for caregivers of persons with dementia in NB, the first program of its kind in Canada. It will test the feasibility of delivering ACT via video calls, telephone, and text messaging to maximize its accessibility to those in need.

The study hopes to then become a launch pad to inform refinement and expansion of the program so it can be delivered to other provinces and territories.

Project 2: Prioritizing targets for workplace MH interventions using routinely collected administrative data 

Lead Investigators: Dr. Ted McDonald, New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRT), University of New Brunswick and Dr. William Journeay, Dalhousie University NB

Psychological health problems are the leading cause of disability in Canada, with mental illness accounting for one-third of workplace disability claims and 70% of disability costs. The creation of an organization-wide mental health strategy was a chief recommendation to business and government by The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health on managing the rising tide of mental health difficulties. Despite a clear need, however, only 39% of Canadian employers have such a strategy in place.

This study will address these barriers to support the development and improvement of mental health programs and interventions in Canadian organizations.

It will use administrative data to characterize, among NB’s entire population, individuals with workplace disability claims over an 11-year period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis will identify employee characteristics which predict the incidence, frequency, duration, and value of mental health disability claims. In the end, the results will support the prioritization of limited organizational and provincial resources toward areas of greatest need – an important consideration given the rising economic toll of mental health and the need for sustainable programs, and may help organizations understand and manage mental health risks inherent to the demographic profile of their workforce, for example by facilitating advanced planning to mitigate productivity deficits due to disability.