EXPERT ADVISORY: 23 January 2023 – R0004
With conversations surrounding mental health amplified as Bell Let’s Talk Day nears, Brock University researchers whose work lies in this realm are available to share their expertise.
Associate Professor of Health Sciences Pauli Gardner studies the relationship between mindfulness and positive mental health among university students.
Gardner has also created an intergenerational service-learning project called Through Their Eyes that matches Brock students with older adults to study features that make a community age-friendly. The relationships formed through the project have been shown to boost the mental health of both the student and senior participants.
Research by Child and Youth Studies Professor Voula Marinos, Director of Brock’s new Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice program, focuses on young people with developmental disabilities and mental illness, and how their needs are addressed within Canada’s youth justice system.
Marinos’ research also looks at gaps that exist within the forensic mental health system and legal verdicts that deem adults “not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder.”
Associate Professor of Health Sciences Karen Patte leads a project, funded by a SickKids-Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Grant, examining ongoing and sustained impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic response — particularly related to school closures and different learning modes and protocols — on the mental health of Canadian adolescents over time.
Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Danielle Sirianni Molnar is working to understand risk and resilience factors in health and well-being, with a focus on perfectionism in children and youth.
As part of that work, Sirianni Molnar, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Adjustment and Well-Being in Children and Youth, is exploring how perfectionism is related to mental and physical health in adolescents, parents and educators.
With a part-time appointment in the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Associate Professor of Applied Disability Studies Kendra Thomson’s research involves employees in the developmental services sector who work with people with intellectual and development disabilities.
Thomson is studying a virtual acceptance and commitment training-based model intended to support the well-being of those direct support professionals in the sector.
Brock University Associate Professor of Health Sciences Pauli Gardner, Child and Youth Studies Professor Voula Marinos, Associate Professor of Health Sciences Karen Patte, Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Danielle Sirianni Molnar and Associate Professor of Applied Disability Studies Kendra Thomson are available for media interviews about their respective work.
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University dhunt2@brocku.ca or 905-941-6209
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