Perinatal Depression Awareness Month

Postpartum depression affects approximately 10% of new mothers, and risk can increase 2-5 times in immigrant and indigenous populations. Madison’s work is part of a multiphase research project, which seeks to address barriers to access of healthcare, especially for women in higher risk populations.

“We’re hoping this will help to support care providers in communities across BC by providing additional care options for patients, especially while waiting for care to become available,” Madison explains. “Some waitlists for specialized care for PPD can be upwards of a year, so providing something that can support women in the interim is very important!”

Since her research began, the team has established partnerships and networks throughout the province, and focus groups with non-Aboriginal Canadian women have begun and are nearing completion for groups in the Lower Mainland, Prince George, Victoria, and Kelowna. Focus groups with Indigenous and immigrant women will begin later this year.

Transcription has started and will be analyzed for emergent themes and how they compare across populations and locations in order to create an appropriate, culturally safe and sensitive treatment program. The app will be developed in partnership with a local web-technology development firm, and the team is looking into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in app development, to enable a customized and adaptable user experience.

The team hopes to have enough data collected to begin developing a prototype later this year.

For more information on the project, click here.

Learn more about the Complex Chronic Diseases Program!

The Complex Chronic Diseases Program (CCDP) established in 2013 services the population of people in British Columbia living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and symptoms attributed to Chronic Lyme Disease. This unique program arose from patient advocacy and aims to provide comprehensive and evidence based care to patients. The main goals of the multidisciplinary team at the clinic are to provide clinical care, knowledge transfer, self-management support and conduct research including quality improvement.

To improve patient flow and accommodate patients referred to the program, the team recently engaged the assistance of both internal partners (Strategic Transformation and Improvement team at BC Women’s Hospital) and external partners at the UBC Sauder School of Business.  

As part of the research mandate of the CCDP, a prospective registry was created to describe our population and evaluate effectiveness of the Program. The registry, launched in the summer of 2017, has enrolled over 250 patients to date (Graph 1). With further input from Community members, we hope to improve recruitment and engage more patient participation in the registry.  

The inter-professional team at the CCDP showcased the program at the 1^st Canadian Collaborative Team Conference in Montreal.  The inaugural meeting was organized to discuss advances and innovations in the study of ME/CFS and to facilitate collaboration across the country.

In addition, the CCDP received two significant accolades last year a) The Award of Excellence for Interprofessional Collaboration and b) PHSA+ Award was bestowed for exemplifying the PHSA value of leadership for bringing care into patients’ home.

The new year brings exciting opportunities as the CCDP re-designs its program and utilizes virtual health delivery of care to more patients living with these conditions.

2019-2020 Global Health Trainee Grant

The Centre for International Child Health and the Medical Staff Association of BC Children's and Women's Hospital are working together to support trainees in health professions who are engaged in global health with clinical activities related to the health care of neonates, children, adolescents, or women. Funding is available in the amount of $1000 for trainees who elect to go on global health electives between February of 2019 and 2020 as part of their academic training. Candidates must be registered in a postgraduate medical training program, or be enrolled in a professional training program in British Columbia, which includes any health care discipline that leads to a professional designation.

Joanna Briggs Institute Database Access

Starting this month, PHSA clinicians, staff and researchers have access to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Database. JBI is recognized as a global leader in evidence-based health care, and is an international not-for-profit, research and development organization based at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Through PHSA’s JBI subscription, you will also have access to their Resource Centre with guides and manuals on how to maximize use of the database, evidence-based practice (EBP) tools, and full text journal articles from the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports.