The KDE Hub’s most recent blog and the first item under Recent Highlights in this Update talk about a ‘summer surge’ in Hub-developed tools. This surge – an intentional concentration of effort – is one example of a more widespread focus on promoting and encouraging growth. The Hub is anticipating a growth phase for mental health promotion throughout and beyond recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are trying to do our part in preparing for and fostering this growth. In this Update you’ll find examples of our cultivation, all advancing the Hub’s objectives to develop new knowledge, build community and capacity, and strengthen systemic supports for mental health promotion.
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Recent highlights
NEW Hub-developed tools available
With thanks to co-design input from the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) projects, the Hub is pleased to make available 8 new tools as part of our summer surge. All 8 tools are described briefly in a Hub blog and posted on our Resources page. They are primarily to support planning for a growth phase in mental health promotion in general and Phase 2 of the MHP-IF specifically. The tools will help projects situate themselves with mental health promotion worldviews and concepts, map systems relevant to their goals and activities (see the Spotlight below for our tool with this purpose), and plan some of the trickier aspects of intervention studies for mental health promotion.
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Hub-developed tools to support child and youth mental health promotion interventions.
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Improvements to the Hub website
With the recent surge of Hub tools and the addition of a new category of Health Equity resources, the Hub website continues to evolve. Another recent improvement is to the Resources page. Each category is now expandable by clicking on the folder icon to reveal the resources within it, and users are now able to sort the resources by date of publication or by date of posting to the Hub website. These changes help with organizing our list of annotated resources as it grows over time. Have a peek at the new functionality and the newly uploaded resources and tell us what you think. There is more to come, so any feedback is greatly appreciated!
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Check out Resources at kdehub.ca
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June 30 webinar: Exploring Health Equity
Health equity is a term widely used in population mental health promotion; however, its application can be unclear. This webinar explored core concepts, principles, and approaches to advance health equity that underpin the MHP-IF. It introduced several tools to make health equity more explicit at the design, implementation and measurement stages of interventions. Webinar speakers were Kelly Salmond and Andrea Simpson, Policy Analysts from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s MHP-IF team. Check out the webinar recording, Event Brief and related resources.
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Looking ahead
KDE Hub's 2nd Annual Symposium
Starting with an article in our last Update, the Hub’s 2nd Annual Symposium will be a standard item for the next few months. With specific dates coming soon you can expect the event to be held in February 2022. Following an invitational reception for the MHP-IF projects, the event will be fully open. Cued by the theme of this Update, the Hub’s Annual Symposium 2022 will focus on a growth phase for mental health promotion in Canada and ways to help it flourish. Our invitation remains open for anyone who may wish to help shape this event. Please contact us at kdehub@uwaterloo.ca to express your interest.
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More Hub-developed tools
The Hub anticipates completing two more tools to bring closure to its summer surge. One tool is a practical guide on MHP-IF projects’ pandemic adaptations, including project actions, quotations, and project contact information. Many adaptations continue to evolve and are expected to inform mental health promotion practice well beyond pandemic times. Another practical tool we expect to deliver is on applying an Indigenous lens, primarily through questions that project teams can ask themselves. These tools will be posted to the Hub’s Resource page.
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Sharing new knowledge from the MHP-IF
Another way the KDE Hub cultivates growth in the field of mental health promotion is by sharing new knowledge from the MHP-IF. The Hub’s efforts complement those of projects with an emphasis on sharing insights from across projects and wherever possible in collaboration with MHP-IF projects. Two upcoming events that will feature new knowledge from the MHP-IF are the Atlantic Summer Institute 2021 and the Canadian Public Health Association Conference 2021. Sessions at both events will be delivered jointly by the KDE Hub and some of the MHP-IF projects and focus on project experiences and insights from their pandemic adaptations.
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Growth is also apparent in resources, events and research for child and youth mental health promotion. This includes practice standards that can accelerate growth in the field and a timely focus on student wellbeing as the next school year approaches. Here are a few items of possible interest:
- The Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society’s policy brief, COVID-19 and Early Childhood Mental Health: Fostering System Change and Resilience, highlights the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on new and expectant parents, infants, young children and their families. It calls for increased support for early child development and complementary social policies.
- The Evidence Exchange Network for Mental Health and Addictions (EENet) provides brief, clear language summaries of research articles. This Research Snapshot summarizes one about students’ well-being, stress and mental health while returning to school during COVID-19.
- Families Canada has a video series, Family Life in Canada, celebrating and supporting newcomers to Canada. See especially, Being a Teen in Canada.
- One of the themes of the 2021 Student Commission of Canada’s youth conference explored mentorship and what it means to youth across Canada. Building a Mentoring Movement in Canada is a conference report summarizing input from youth participants and their recommendations.
- From the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health, the Quality Standard for Youth Engagement includes nine principles for youth engagement within organizations and communities.
- The Canadian Healthy School Standards aim to elevate student wellbeing. They come from the Canadian Healthy Schools Alliance, a network of organizations promoting health and well-being in school communities.
Let us know if there are new resources, events or research you would like us to share. We love to hear from you: kdehub@uwaterloo.ca.
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Hub Spotlight: New Hub tool on systems mapping
We’re not picking favourites amongst the new Hub tools. One reason to put this one in the spotlight is to say thank you to Dr. Diane Finegood for her contributions to this tool and to the Hub Resource Collaborative, from which she has now retired. The video component of the tool includes audio clips from a recorded conversation with Diane, in which she shares some of her wisdom about systems. Profiling this tool also allows us to show how the Hub used outputs from a session on mapping participant contexts at our first annual symposium this past January, with thanks to all who participated in that session for their thoughtful contributions.
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The Knowledge Development and Exchange Hub is dedicated to advancing child and youth mental health promotion in Canada. Our niche is supporting projects funded through the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund and others with shared interests. Learn more at kdehub.ca. |
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