Building Back Better
Documenting the wider impacts of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan.
Photo Credit: David Stobbe / Stobbephoto.ca
Data and equity needed to drive post-pandemic recovery in Canada: a Saskatchewan contribution
This project aims to document and understand the wider impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan in four interrelated areas: mental health, substance use, housing precarity, and food insecurity.
Prior to the pandemic, significant numbers of Saskatchewan residents experienced difficulties related to these intersecting issues. Anecdotal evidence suggests the pandemic has only exacerbated these problems and increased disparities, but no information has been systematically collected. The need to understand how these challenges combine to affect wellbeing and develop effective solutions has never been greater.
The pandemic presents us with an imperative to learn lessons in order to reduce inequity and build better systems that will enable us to mitigate future public health crises.
Data and equity needed to drive post-pandemic recovery in Canada: a Saskatchewan contribution
This project aims to document and understand the wider impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan in four interrelated areas: mental health, substance use, housing precarity, and food insecurity.
Prior to the pandemic, significant numbers of Saskatchewan residents experienced difficulties related to these intersecting issues. Anecdotal evidence suggests the pandemic has only exacerbated these problems and increased disparities, but no information has been systematically collected. The need to understand how these challenges combine to affect wellbeing and develop effective solutions has never been greater.
The pandemic presents us with an imperative to learn lessons in order to reduce inequity and build better systems that will enable us to mitigate future public health crises.
How are we doing this?
We are using a multi-method study design to illuminate the wider impacts of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan.
First, in conjunction with research partners such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada and Mental Health Research Canada, we are conducting a repeated cross-sectional study to assess the perceptions and experiences of Saskatchewan adults during the pandemic.
Second, we are engaging with members of equity-seeking groups (including people who use substances, have disabilities, are 2SLGBTQ+, are newcomers), frontline workers, and community-based human services agencies to assess how the pandemic may be affecting already marginalized groups.
Population Survey
In partnership with national and provincial researchers, we are conducting a survey to gauge the wider health impacts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in and across Saskatchewan, focusing on mental health, substance use, food insecurity, and housing precarity.
Qualitative Research
We will be using qualitative research methods to understand how the pandemic has unequally impacted different equity-seeking groups in Saskatchewan, including Indigenous peoples, visible minorities such as newcomers, people with disabilities, and people disadvantaged due to their geographic location, age, and/or gender.
Community Partnerships
This research is possible through the building of intersectoral partnerships between researchers and community. Our team includes leading Saskatchewan researchers in health, social sciences, and humanities, leadership and staff of community- and service-based organizations, and government bodies from across the province.
Policy Advocacy
We will use our survey and qualitative data to create awareness, inform future research, improve program and service delivery, and influence policy to build back better in Saskatchewan.
Core Team
Nazeem Muhajarine
Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine is a social epidemiologist and Director of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU). He leads a half-dozen COVID-related scientific projects and sits on provincial and federal expert committees related to the pandemic. Since March 2020, he has advocated the importance of health equity in our pandemic responses.
James Dixon
James is leading our inquiry into COVID-19's effect on mental health and substance use in Saskatchewan. He has a PhD in community and population health sciences and has been working in substance use since 2012. James is passionate about harm reduction, reducing inequities (for people who use drugs, and 2SLGBTQ+ and corrections populations), and community mobilization.
Suvadra Datta Gupta
Suvadra is leading our analysis of COVID-19's impact on housing and food insecurity in Saskatchewan. She is a PhD candidate in community and population health sciences and has significant experience in overseeing research projects involving survey design and data management, econometric analysis of large datasets and developing policy proposals.
Sarah Buhler
Dr. Sarah Buhler is the co-lead (housing) for the Building Back Better project. She is the recipient of numerous awards in academic excellence, community engagement and outreach, and teaching. Sarah’s primary research areas include access to justice, legal ethics and the legal profession, and legal education/clinical legal education.
Colleen Christopherson-Cote
Colleen Christopherson-Cote is the community lead for the housing and food insecurity areas of the Building Back Better project and was deeply involved in the work of the Saskatoon Inter-agency Response to COVID-19. She works in the community and with academics on projects that aim to reduce poverty and improve the lives of vulnerable people in Saskatoon.
Kayla DeMong
Kayla DeMong is the community lead for the mental health and substance use focus areas of the Building Back Better project. Kayla has been working in harm reduction in both frontline and management capacities for 10 years, and has been in the Executive Director role since March 2022. She is passionate about harm reduction, program management, and crisis management.
Rachel Engler-Stringer
Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer is the co-lead (food insecurity) for the Building Back Better project. She has a doctorate in Nutrition and her research interests include community food security, food environments and food access, food system sustainability, health promotion, and community-based and participatory research.
Barbara Fornssler
Dr. Barb Fornssler is the co-lead (mental health and substance use) for the Building Back Better project. She has a doctorate in communications, and has been working in substance use research since 2011. Her research focus areas include substance use and harm reduction, decriminalization, and philosophies of technology, gender, and health.
Jason Mercredi
Jason Mercredi is the community lead for housing and food insecurity for the Building Back Better project. He has extensive frontline experience working with people with mental health and substance use disorders, youth, and people with intellectual disabilities. Since 2016, Jason has held leadership positions in both community-based organizations and Métis governance.
Gabriela Novotna
Dr. Gabriela Novotna is the co-lead (mental health and substance use) for the Building Back Better project. She has a doctorate in social work from Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focus areas include substance use and harm reduction, concurrent disorders, gambling, implementation science, knowledge translation, and institutional theory.
Erika Dyck
Erika helped to create the archive and has written several books exploring psychedelics and healthcare in Saskatchewan including A Culture’s Catalyst: Historical Encounters with Peyote and the Native American Church in Canada (2016). She is the Associate Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines in Canada.
Patrick Chassé
Patrick is managing the Remember Rebuild SK project. He has a long-standing interest in the environmental health and the well-being of communities and a Phd in Environmental history. His current research explores how climate change is driving migration and malnutrition in peasant communities across Latin America.
Research Team
SURVEY DEVELOPMENT
MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE
Natalie Kallio, Centre for Co-operatives, USask
Raina Kim, Medical Student, University of Saskatchewan
Jane Macleod, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF)
Victoria Taras, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF)
Mansfield Mela, Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies
Vikram Nichani, SPHERU, Community Health and Epidemiology
Nuelle Novik, SPHERU, Social Work
Akela Peoples, Mental Health Research Canada
Michael Cooper, Mental Health Research Canada
Lenore Swystun, Prairie Wild Consulting
Sabbir Ahmed, SPHERU / Community Health and Epidemiology
HOUSING AND FOOD INSECURITY
Gord Androsoff, CHEP Good Food
Daniel Adeyinka, SPHERU / Community Health and Epidemiology
Jovana Miladinovic, Medical Student, University of Saskatchewan
Isobel Findlay, Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR)
Debra Haubrich, Melius Terra / Know YXE
Ian Roach, Melius Terra / Know YXE
Bonnie Jeffrey, SPHERU / Social Work
Sandra Kary, Friendship Inn
Laura O'Connor, Saskatoon Food Bank
Len Usiskin, Quint Development Corporation
Chelsea Brown, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina Qu'Appelle Region
Partners
The success of this project relies on our community partners, who are providing insight on mental health, substance use, housing, and food security issues across the province. This work also would not be possible without generous Tri-Council funding.
