Recruiting refugee newcomers for project advisory committee

• Are you 18 years of age or older?
• Did you come to Canada as a Refugee from Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Somalia, or Syria in the last 15 years?
• Do you currently reside in British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), Ontario (ON) or Quebec (QC)?
• Are you comfortable speaking and reading in English?
• Do you have access to internet and a computer?
• Do you have experience with mental health care in the community, either through personal or family member engagement with Canadian mental health services and would you like to share your knowledge with others?

If you answered “YES” to the above questions, we would like to invite you to our advisory committee for a one-year project led by Prof. Michaela Hynie, York University; Dr. Branka Agic, CAMH; and Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CAMH & Wellesley Institute. The goal of this project is to support access to appropriate virtual mental health services for refugee newcomers in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Project summary:

As many mental health services have moved on-line, there are new opportunities for accessing mental health care. However, on-line mental health care has some special challenges, especially for recently arrived refugee newcomers. We are asking: How do we know when help is needed? What services are appropriate and accessible for whom? And what is the best way to access these services?

If you join our advisory committee, you will help us

• focus the research questions
• guide and support recruitment
• interpret findings
• guide dissemination strategies

Advisory committee activities:

The advisory committee will be asked to participate in two or three virtual (on-line) meetings over the next 8 months. Each meeting will take approximately two hours and may also have a few documents to review. You will receive $90 in an e-transfer as a thank you for your time after each meeting.

If you are interested in participating, please contact the project coordinator, Ms. Anna Oda: annaoda@yorku.ca