Kelly Anderson awarded the Ontario Mental Health Foundation’s New Investigator Fellowship
Congratulations to Kelly Anderson, PhD, on receiving the Ontario Mental Health Foundation’s (OMHF) New Investigator Fellowship.
The OMHF New Investigator Fellowship awards up to $40,000 per year for three years to a candidate in the first five years of their career, giving them the opportunity to establish a line of research and to consolidate a research career.
Anderson, an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Psychiatry, received the fellowship for her population-based study on access to care for people with first-episode psychosis in Ontario.
Current evidence suggests that the longer psychotic episodes are left untreated, the worse the outcomes. Anderson’s study will examine socio-demographic factors associated with access to care, including immigration and socio-economic status, for those between the ages of 14 and 35.
By studying health administrative data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Studies (ICES) and clinical data from the Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychoses (PEPP), Anderson will also be able to compare people receiving specialised services (such as PEPP) with those who do not have the same access to care.
With three per cent of the population experiencing at least one psychotic episode in their lifetimes and 5000 new cases in Ontario every year, Anderson hopes to reveal the barriers to care that Ontarians are facing so early access to mental health care can be improved.
