
Research

At Wellstream, our interdisciplinary team conducts research aimed at addressing knowledge gaps to improve mental health and reduce substance use harms for children, youth and their communities.
Our research and related partnerships build trusted connections across communities, professionals and governments creating direct pathways for influence and impact.

JMIR Infodemiology | 2024
One of the first studies to explore the experiences of youth with TikTok, specifically their experiences accessing mental health information on the platform, the findings provide important direction for future research.

2S/LGBTQ+ youth substance use and pathways to homelessness: A photovoice study.
International Journal of Drug Policy | 2024
Supports for 2S/LGBTQ+ youth, who use drugs in the lead-up to and after becoming homeless, should be informed by youths’ pursuits of becoming and belonging in the context of marginalization.

Journal of Environmental Psychology | 2024
Despite growing population-level data about the negative mental health consequences of climate change on youth, there is limited data from clinical contexts.

Identifying mechanisms of youth mental health promotion: A realist evaluation of the Agenda Gap programme.
PLoS Mental Health | 2024
Agenda Gap as a Third Place / Third Space.

Health | 2023
There is growing awareness about issues of sexual consent, especially in autonomy-compromising contexts.

Journal of Mental Health and Climate Change | 2023
Evidence of the population-level mental health impacts of COVID-19.

Intersecting transitions among 2S/LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness: A scoping review
Children and Youth Services Review | 2024
Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (2S/LGBTQ+) youth under 30 years of age are inequitably impacted by homelessness.

PLoS One | 2023
Mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been felt equally within populations.

Harm Reduction Journal | 2023
The intersection of dual public health emergencies—the COVID-19 pandemic and the drug toxicity crisis—has led to an urgent need for acute care based harm reduction for unregulated opioid use.

BMC Public Health | 2023
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five adults in Canada worried about having enough food to meet their household’s needs.

Drug and Alcohol Review | 2023
Canada is in the midst of a public health emergency in drug poisoning (overdose) deaths. In this context parents, and especially mothers, of those who have died from drug poisoning have mobilised to advocate for urgent responses and drug policy reforms.

Differentiating the role of alcohol in young men’s use of substances with sex: A qualitative study
Harm Reduction Journal | 2023
Alcohol consumption is common among young men and occurs in many contexts.

Women’s experiences in injectable opioid agonist treatment programs in Vancouver, Canada
International Journal of Drug Policy | 2023
Complex gendered dynamics, including power differentials, violence, and social norms, shape the overdose crisis and drug treatment programs which can adversely impact women’s experiences.

Digital Health | 2023
This paper characterizes levels of mental distress among adults living in Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the extent of virtual mental health resource use, including reasons for non-use, among adults with moderate to severe distress.

Frontiers in Public Health | 2023
Protecting and promoting the mental health of youth under 30 years of age is a priority, globally.

SSM Population Health | 2023
To mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial resources, governments and family/friends mobilized financial support interventions (e.g., emergency aid funds) and assistance.

SSM Qualitative Research in Health | 2023
Lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (SGM) women are at high risk of suicide.

Journal of Adolescent Health | 2023
British Columbia (BC), Canada, is an epicenter of North America’s overdose crisis.

BMC Public Health | 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increases in negative emotions such as fear, worry, and loneliness, as well as changes in positive emotions, including calmness and hopefulness.

Nurse Education Today | 2023
Patients experiencing concurrent disorders (i.e., co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders) are prevalent in mental health settings and their health and social outcomes are often poor.

Community Mental Health Journal | 2023
While young adults experienced mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how their mental health needs were subsequently met through access to mental health services (MHS).

International Journal of Public Health | 2022
Adverse mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are well documented; however, there remains limited data detailing trends in mental health at different points in time and across population sub-groups most impacted.

Using photovoice to understand experiences of opioid use among sexual and gender minority youth
Culture, Health & Sexuality | 2022
In Canada, sexual and gender minority youth use opioids at disproportionately high rates. Yet, little is known about the distinct contexts of opioid use within this group, challenging capacity to develop well founded policy and practice supports.

Qualitative Research in Health | 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic is adversely impacting suicidality at a population level, with consequences resulting from a variety of pandemic-driven disruptions, including social activities and connectedness.

Psychiatry Research | 2022
This paper examines the mental health and substance use impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations as compared to non-SGM populations, and identifies risk factors for mental health and substance use impacts among SGM groups.

Population Health | 2022
With significant levels of mental distress reported by populations, globally, the magnitude of suicidal ideation during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic is a central concern.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2021
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, other queer, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2+) people are particularly at risk for the psycho-social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, though population-tailored research within this context remains limited.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | 2021
Pandemic-related disruptions, including school, child care, and workplace closures, financial stressors, and relationship challenges, present unique risks to families’ mental health.

Drugs Education, Prevention and Policy | 2021
Cannabis was recently legalized for adult use in Canada and many American states. In this context, there is a pressing need for educational resources – aimed at youth and their parents/caregivers – to reduce potential harm.

Social Science and Medicine | 2021
North America’s overdose crisis is one of the most urgent public health issues of our time and parents bereaved from substance use are a prominent voice within the news media.

Frontiers in Public Health | 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is having considerable impacts on population-level mental health, with research illustrating an increased prevalence in suicidal thoughts due to pandemic stressors.

Nurse Education in Practice | 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic is having considerable impacts on population-level mental health, with research illustrating an increased prevalence in suicidal thoughts due to pandemic stressors.

Canadian Journal of Public Health | 2021
Little is known about the association between mental health and diminished food worry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qualitative Health Research | 2021
North America’s overdose crisis is an urgent public health issue that has resulted in thousands of deaths. As the crisis began to take hold across Canada in 2016, bereaved parents, mainly mothers, emerged as vocal advocates for drug policy reform and harm reduction, using their stories to challenge the stigma of drug-related death.

Legal regulation as a human rights and public health approach to currently prohibited substances
International Journal of Drug Policy | 2021

Social Sciences | 2021
Over the previous decade, there has been a notable shift within sex work marketplaces, with many aspects of the work now facilitated via the internet.

Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family mental health in Canada
BMJ Open | 2021
In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, school/child care closures and employment instability have created unprecedented conditions for families raising children at home.

Associations between periods of COVID-19 quarantine and mental health in Canada
Psychiatry Research | 2021
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions, including Canada, have made use of public health measures such as COVID-19 quarantine to reduce the transmission of the virus.

Canadian Journal of Public Health | 2021
As is the case across Canada, the province of British Columbia is in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis. In response to the devastating impacts of this crisis on youth (under 19 years of age), the provincial government is considering amending the Mental Health Act to allow for involuntary, hospital-based stabilization care of youth following an overdose.

Preventative Medicine | 2021
Evidence on the population-level mental health impacts of COVID-19 are beginning to amass; however, to date, there are significant gaps in our understandings of whose mental health is most impacted, how the pandemic is contributing to widening mental health inequities, and the coping strategies being used to sustain mental health.

Bereaved mothers’ engagement in drug policy reform: A multisite qualitative analysis
International Journal of Drug Policy | 2021
Globally, a tainted drug supply is claiming the lives of tens of thousands of people who use drugs and current measures are not quelling this crisis.

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound mental health impacts among the general population worldwide.

International Journal of Mental Health Systems | 2020
Mental health challenges are a leading health concern for youth globally, requiring a comprehensive approach incorporating promotion, prevention and treatment within a healthy public policy framework.

Addressing ethical issues in studying men’s traumatic stress
International Journal of Men’s Social and Community Health | 2020
Like many human experiences, traumatic stress is highly gendered. Over the past several decades, a substantial number of empirical studies have explored ethical issues in traumatic stress research.

Leveraging nurses to improve care for inpatients with concurrent disorders: A scoping review
Journal of Dual Diagnosis | 2020
Several challenges have been identified for patients with concurrent disorders and the providers that care for them, contributing to a pressing need for interventions to improve outcomes, particularly within inpatient mental health settings.

Harm Reduction Journal | 2020
North America and other parts of the globe are in the midst of a public health emergency related to opioid overdoses and a highly contaminated illicit drug supply.

Undergraduate students’ reflections on mental health nursing following practicum experience
Journal of Clinical Nursing | 2021
To explore a cohort of mental health nurses’ views and experiences in developing and applying critical appraisal of research skills to identify helping and hindering factors.

Nurse Education Today | 2021
Nursing students experience numerous personal, academic, and practice-related stressors, impacting their mental health. Nursing programs often contribute to student stress and should incorporate strategies to support students’ mental health.

Equipping youth for meaningful policy engagement: An environmental scan
International Journal of Health Promotion | 2020
To better address the mental health and substance use crises facing youth globally, a comprehensive approach, inclusive of mental health promotion is needed. A key component of mental health promotion is policy intervention to address the social and structural determinants of health.

Harm Reduction Journal | 2019
Reducing harms of youth substance use is a global priority, with parents identified as a key target for efforts to mitigate these harms. Much of the research informing parental responses to youth substance use are grounded in abstinence and critiqued as ineffective and unresponsive to youth contexts.

How the study of networks informs knowledge translation and implementation: A scoping review.
Harm Reduction Journal | 2019
To date, implementation science has focused largely on identifying the individual and organizational barriers, processes, and outcomes of knowledge translation (KT) (including implementation efforts).

International Journal of Mental Health Systems | 2019
While considerable progress is being made to understand the health and self-management needs of youth with mental health disorders, little attention has focused on the mental health and recovery needs that the youth themselves identify—this despite a national priority to incorporate patient-oriented research into the development and assessment of mental health services.

Health and Place | 2019
Play is a complex, taken-for-granted activity that is often assumed to be universal in how it is conceptualized and experienced. In a global context, play has been identified as a human right for all children (UNICEF, 2006).

Unpacking Social Isolation in Men’s Suicidality
Qualitative Health Research | 2019
Social isolation has featured as a significant and oftentimes all-encompassing risk factor for male suicide, yet, as an explanatory mechanism, it has not been unpacked in terms of what it constitutes in everyday life.

International Journal of Drug Policy | 2019
Canada has announced that it will legalize cannabis on October 17, 2018, and as a result of this impending drug law reform the need to develop prevention resources and drug education – in schools, in public health, and for parents – has emerged as a public concern and a policy priority.

Power and resistance: Nursing students’ experiences of navigating mental health practicums
Advances in Nursing Science | 2018
Mental health challenges are a leading health issue, and while nurses should be well positioned to provide care to this client population, nurses are not adequately prepared for this role during their education.

A guide to multi-site qualitative analysis
Qualitative Health Research | 2018
The aims of multisite qualitative research, originally developed within the case study tradition, are to produce findings that are reflective of context, while also holding broader applicability across settings.

Journal of Adolescence | 2018
Mental health challenges are the leading health issue facing youth globally. To better respond to this health challenge, experts advocate for a population health approach inclusive of mental health promotion; yet this area remains underdeveloped.

Setting the legal age for access to cannabis in Canada: Bridging neuroscience, policy and prevention
Neuropsychopharmacology Reviews | 2017
The United States and Canada are both engaged in cannabis policy reforms with a number of US states legalizing or decriminalizing use, possession, cultivation, and sale, and the Federal Government of Canada poised to legalize cannabis in 2018.

Photovoice ethics: Critical reflections from men’s mental health research
Qualitative Health Research | 2017
As photovoice continues to grow as a method for researching health and illness, there is a need for rigorous discussions about ethical considerations. In this article, we discuss three key ethical issues arising from a recent photovoice study investigating men’s depression and suicide.

Harm Reduction | 2017
Youth substance use programming and educational strategies are frequently informed by prevention approaches that emphasize abstinence goals, which often do not resonate with youth in their lack of acknowledgment of young people’s social context and how young people perceive positive effects of substance use.

Injury, Interiority and Isolation in Men’s Suicidality
American Journal of Men’s Health | 2017
Men’s high suicide rates have been linked to individual risk factors including history of being abused as a child, single marital status, and financial difficulties.

Nursing Inquiry | 2017
The discourse of safety has informed the care of individuals with mental illness through institutionalization and into modern psychiatric nursing practices.

Unpacking young people’s narratives about their aspirations: A Bourdieusian perspective
International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies | 2016
Drawing from Bourdieu’s theories on habitus, capital, and field, this article explores the complex relationship between social context and youth’s aspirations and perceptions of the future.

Health Research Policy and Systems | 2016
Drawing from Bourdieu’s theories on habitus, capital, and field, this article explores the complex relationship between social context and youth’s aspirations and perceptions of the future.

Sustaining organizational culture change in health systems
Journal of Health Organization and Management | 2016

Youth & Society | 2016
This article is based on findings from a qualitative study with 27 adolescents in northern British Columbia, Canada. Our aim was to explore youths’ perspectives on the sources of emotional distress in their lives and how these are connected to peer-based aggression and victimization within their community.

Youth & Society | 2015
This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in a rural community in British Columbia, Canada. Ethnographic methods were used to bring youth voice to the literature on emotional distress; and to capture the ways in which context shapes young peoples’ experiences of emotional distress within their everyday lives.

Implications for understanding and addressing mental health and illness
Nursing Inquiry | 2014
While knowledge represents a valuable commodity, not all forms of knowledge are afforded equal status. The politics of knowledge, which entails the privileging of particular ways of knowing through linkages between the producers of knowledge and other bearers of authority or influence, represents a powerful force driving knowledge development.


The influences of health beliefs and identity on adolescent marijuana and tobacco co-use
Qualitative Health Research | 2014
Among youth, the co-use of marijuana and tobacco is highly prevalent, yet a considerable gap remains in the drug-prevention literature pertaining to such co-use.

Harm Reduction Journal | 2013
Contradictory evidence on cannabis adds to the climate of confusion regarding the health harms related to cannabis use. This is particularly true for young people as they encounter and make sense of opposing information on cannabis.

Approaches to understanding and addressing treatment-resistant depression: A scoping review
Harm Reduction Journal | 2012
Treatment-resistant depression is associated with significant disability and due to its high prevalence, results in substantive economic and societal burden at a population level.

Knowledge translation in mental health: A scoping review
Healthcare Policy | 2011
Intensified knowledge translation efforts are considered important in the field of mental health in order to accelerate the implementation of various developments in research, policy and practice.