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One day a week, Tamara Vanderwal sees pediatric patients suffering from mental health issues, many of which have worsened during the pandemic. The other four days, the Vancouver-based child psychiatrist runs a neuroimaging lab where she studies what’s going on in the brain in child psychiatric disorders. “I have this unique position where I’m both providing care and understanding what children and families are dealing with and also figuring out the underlying causes,” says Dr. Vanderwal.
Dr. Vanderwal is the first to say that much research is still needed before scientists can determine how psychiatric illnesses develop – and how to target them most effectively. Currently, her patients often see her eight times and go through trial and error before the right medication is found. Even then, their prescription will likely need tweaking as the child grows or may need to be replaced with another drug when its effectiveness wears off.
“We’re still landing on the moon – there’s a huge gap that we’re trying to close in understanding mental health, we need to still figure out the basics,” she says.
Chief Research and Program Officer of Brain Canada, Dr. Catherine Ferland is well aware of the urgency of addressing the mental health of young people in Canada. Her work at the national non-profit foundation focuses on supporting and funding brain research and brings her into daily contact with this subject matter.
“Half of the mental health burden is in Canadians aged 15 to 29,” she says.
The advent of COVID-19 compounded already high rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues in younger patients. She says that failing to address these issues in children will lead to more complex mental health concerns when kids become adults. “There is an actual crisis in society when we talk about mental health,” she says. “It is a critical time to act.”
It’s why she champions the new partnership between Brain Canada and the RBC Foundation on youth mental health. The two organizations have come together to fund a research competition to create a new mental health platform. “We are making a powerful call to action to the research community,” she says.
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Brain Canada’s President and CEO Dr. Viviane Poupon says the organization recognizes that youth mental health is the foundation to future mental health. It is also an area in crisis and in dire need of innovation.
“This research program is an opportunity for new and emerging approaches to collaborate, develop and share solutions for today’s youth mental health challenges,” says Poupon. “We must ensure we are equipped to meet the rising demand for youth mental health resources, services and treatment options.”
The objective is to gather research about youth mental health and create a national resource available to clinicians, researchers, social workers and caregivers. As the findings become available, it will help eliminate the silos that exist between different research groups. A knowledge translation expert will assist in synthesizing and translating the research, further boosting accessibility.
“Our commitment to youth mental well-being is focused on prevention and early intervention programs that support young people with timely access to knowledge, supports and care, when and where they need it,” says Mark Beckles, Vice President, Social Impact and Innovation, RBC. “Through our partnership with Brain Canada, RBC Future Launch will help address the barriers often faced by young people when trying to access the mental health supports they need.”
Dr. Vanderwal says that this type of research sharing is critical to improve the care of children and adolescents with mental illnesses. “I think the slow burn of mental health in youth was already pretty steep – and then the pandemic upped the ante,” she says.
Worse, many fall through the cracks. Eighty per cent of kids don’t get the right treatment, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, largely because scientists still don’t know the best way to study the brain and young people’s brains change dramatically as they grow and develop, according to Dr. Vanderwal. “Psychiatric disorders in kids don’t present in these nice, clear boxes,” she says. “It’s very frustrating.”
She says there is a need for brain mapping and treatment studies – all of which are expensive and time-consuming. “We need a broad understanding of the scope of the work that needs to be done in order to up our clinical game,” she says.
Dr. Vanderwal hopes that once this research takes place, clinicians may one day be able to biologically assess a child – considering information about their brain and genetic profile – and determine exactly what psychiatric treatment or medication will work best, quickly and effectively. “It will tell us what they need and how they’ll do,” she says. “For the kids who receive an assessment, it will make a huge difference – and it will help us allocate resources in a much more efficient way,” she says.
Ferland says the long-term goal will be to effect guideline changes around youth mental health down the road. “We need new approaches, prevention strategies and treatments for youth mental health,” she says. These can “improve the quality of life of youth in Canada.”
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Brain Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.