Question Period Note: CHIR support for research on mental health and addictions

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• The Government of Canada has committed to work with the provinces and territories to increase the availability of high-quality mental health and addiction services for Canadians, particularly in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
• Our government continues to recognize the importance of funding innovative and timely research that will improve health outcomes for people experiencing challenges related to mental health and substance use.
• That is why, over the last five years, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR we have invested over $496 million in mental health and behavioural disorders research, over $22 million in research related to Post Traumatic Stress Injury, and approximately $180 million in research on addictions.
• This includes investments of $13.5 million in the COVID-19 and Mental Health Initiative, supporting research to provide timely evidence to decision makers on mental health and substance use responses in the context of COVID-19.
• Additionally, in Budget 2021, we committed $45 million over two years to develop evidence-informed national mental health service standards.

Mental Health
Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, CIHR invested over $496 million in mental health and behavioural disorders research. This represents more than 2300 projects led by experts across the country.

Children and Youth: CIHR, in partnership with the Graham Boeckh Foundation, is supporting ACCESS Open Minds, a national project that is transforming the way youth aged 11-25 access mental health care by developing and testing evidence-informed approaches. There are currently 17 sites operating in 7 provinces and one territory. These sites have transformed youth mental health services in diverse ways based on local context by providing Integrated Youth Services (IYS). For example, in Ulukhaktok, a remote community in the Northwest Territories where professional service providers are not always available, the site is evaluating a model where lay health workers are trained to provide support to youth in distress. Additionally, the first phase of the IYS Network-of-Networks (IYS-Net) initiative ($1M over 1 year), was launched in April 2022 to help inform the development of pan-Canadian create a Canada-wide network of provincial and territorial learning health systems for Integrated Youth Services for mental health and substance use.

In addition, CIHR committed for $6.25M over 5 years to the Mental Health in the Early Years funding opportunity in March 2022, with a focus area on mental health initiatives for young children (ages 0-5), Indigenous peoples, as well as transforming mental health with integrated care.

National Standards for Mental Health Services: Budget 2021 committed $45 million over two years, to help develop national mental health service standards, in collaboration with PTs, health organizations, and key stakeholders. CIHR will support research and KM to inform standards development and evaluation.

Suicide Prevention: Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, CIHR invested over $31 million dollars in research related to suicide prevention. This research will lead to the discovery of new, effective solutions for better prevention.

Post Traumatic Stress Injury: CIHR, in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) work to address PTSI in public safety personnel. Budget 2018 invested $20 million over five years, which has led to several funding opportunities, including the establishment of research and coordination hubs for public safety, as well as crisis line and app, to help inform the evidence base on PTSI for public safety personnel.

COVID-19 and Mental Health Initiative (CMH)
The mental health of Canadians has worsened during the pandemic. In April 2020, CIHR launched the CMH initiative to provide timely evidence to decision makers on mental health and substance use responses in the context of COVID-19. CIHR launched four funding opportunities under this initiative, supporting a total of 101 projects for a total investment of $13.7M from CIHR and partners.

Substance Use
CIHR supports researchers across Canada that aim to address various issues related to substance use and has invested approximately $180 million in the area between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

In 2014, CIHR established a national research network in problematic substance use called the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM). CRISM was originally composed of four large regional nodes (British Columbia, Prairies, Ontario, Québec/Atlantic) that connected researchers, service providers, decision makers and people with lived experience from across Canada. CRISM is recognized as a critical network that responds to the policy and evidence needs of decision-makers. CRISM activities include:

• The OPTIMA Study (2016-2022) – a national multi-site clinical trial involving over 270 participants recruited from all four CRISM Nodes to compare and evaluate two models of care for the treatment of opioid use disorder. (~$4.4 million over 4 years).
• National Treatment Guideline – CRISM has developed a National Guideline for the clinical management of opioid use disorder, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on March 5, 2018.
• Implementation Research Program – On September 14, 2017, CIHR announced a new investment of $7.5 million over six years for CRISM to conduct a national research program for effective implementation of evidence-based interventions into clinical and community.
In 2022, CIHR renewed its support for CRISM with an investment of $17 million over 6 years. Phase II of CRISM looks to build and expand on the successes of the Initiative’s first phase by increasing the number of Regional Nodes to enhance geographic coverage (i.e. creating a new stand-alone node for the Atlantic region) while maintaining the “Network of Networks” and expanding capacity. The renewed investment also includes $5 million for a national study on methamphetamine use disorder.

In addition to priority-driven investments to CRISM, in 2019 CIHR also invested $1.5 million to support evaluation of interventions implemented across Canada in response to the opioid crisis through the Evaluation of Interventions to Address the Opioid Crisis Funding Opportunity.

In 2020, CIHR supported 7 projects on methamphetamine and related psychostimulant use, totaling $700,000. This funding supports research in diverse areas including effectiveness of existing treatment options, harm reduction strategies, sociocultural impacts of methamphetamine use and epidemiology of methamphetamine use and associated disorders.

In March 2022, CIHR announced $2M in funding to support 20 one-year catalyst grants on alcohol. These projects will strengthen the evidence base and expand alcohol research in key areas, foster alcohol-related research capacity, and inform the development of future larger scale research projects.

Best Brain Exchange (BBE)
In November 2020, CIHR hosted the ‘Innovations in Virtual Care for Mental Health and Substance Use’ BBE in collaboration with the British Columbia Ministry of Health, British Columbia Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. This BBE brought together provincial policy and decision makers, researchers and implementation experts, non-governmental organizations and other key stakeholders to gain an understanding of how virtual care can meet the unique and evolving mental health and substance use service needs of British Columbia’s diverse population during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, CIHR invested over $496 million in mental health and behavioural disorders research, approximately $180 million in research on addictions, and over $31 million dollars in research related to suicide prevention.
• Additionally, in Budget 2021, the Government of Canada committed $45 million over two years to develop evidence-informed national mental health service standards.