Population and Community Health Unit

Principal Investigators: Patricia Erickson, Evelyn Vingilis, Shannon Stewart, Hayley Hamilton
Co-investigators: Paul Wheeler, Sue Bondy, Nathan Kolla, Corine Carlisle.
Funding: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Partnerships for Health Systems Improvement (PHSI) (2013-2018)

Overview: The central purpose is to address the needs of youth with mental health problems, and who are in conflict with the law, through introduction and evaluation of a new, in-depth screening tool, the interRAI Youth Justice Custodial Facilities (YJCF). The evaluation of this intervention will provide the evidence base to formulate the priorities of knowledge users from MCYS, Justice Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and CAMH. It will provide important new knowledge to aid in the identification of potential mental health problems, including substance use, and allocating scarce resources for mental health needs of youth in the justice system.

At present, MCYS only conducts Stage 1 brief screening of all youth entering custodial institutions, but the YJCF enables a more in-depth Stage 2 assessment for possible disorders of all youth, followed by advancement to Stage 3 care planning based on appropriate clinical assessment protocols where warranted.

A key KT deliverable will be to train and support 30 assessors (clinical staff) working in secure custody facilities on the YJCF to improve: 1) screening of mental health and substance use problems; 2) care planning and 3) access to interventions and treatment of youth in custody (YIC). A process evaluation will be conducted to assess intervention implementation and short and medium outcomes will be evaluated through a prospective, group-randomized, posttest only design. The evaluation will determine whether a higher percentage of YIC show evidence of mental health and/or substance use problems in the YJCF screening intervention arm compared to that obtained from the standard screener, Youth Admission Interview Tool, used in the control arm. Evaluation will also assess whether a higher percentage of YIC of intervention arm received care planning for mental health and substance use services, interventions, treatment and referrals compared to the control arm. A 6 month follow up with MCYS data bases will enable us to determine whether a greater percentage of those in the intervention arm had received treatment than the control arm.   

YouTube High Risk Driving Videos: What are the Effects on Young Male Drivers

Principal Investigator: Evelyn Vingilis
Co-investigators: Zűmrűt Yildirim-Yenier, Christine Wickens, Jane Seeley, Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko, Daniel Grushka, Judy Fleiter.
Funding: Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Road Safety Research Partnership Program (2015-2017)

Overview: The aim of the study is to examine the content of high risk YouTube videos and their potential effects on young male drivers. No research has been published on this topic. We conducted two studies: 1) a content analysis of a sample of YouTube high risk driving videos and 2) focus groups with young men.

Study 1: to document and analyze the content of a sample of YouTube high risk driving videos, including high risk driving activities, consequences, comments, etc.

Study 2: to interview young men to determine: (i) if they watch and share YouTube videos, in particular high risk driving videos, and (ii) what effects high risk driving videos have on them (either positive or negative, on attitudes, arousal, emotions and driving behaviours) and whether YouTube videos of negative consequences (violations, collisions, injuries) discourage high risk driving.

Principal Investigators: Linda Pederson, Evelyn Vingilis, Jane Seeley
Co-investigators: Anca Ialomiteanu, Christine Wickens, Roberta Ferrence, Robert E. Mann

Overview: The purpose was to examine motor vehicle collisions among smokers and non-smokers in Ontario to assess whether smokers have an elevated risk similar to the findings from around the world. Data from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Monitor survey of the Ontario adult population was used. Additionally, during this time period, Ontario’s Second-hand Smoke in Cars legislation was enacted to reduce smoking in vehicles. The introduction of this new legislation provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between risk of collisions and smoking.