PTS workshop prioritizes lived experiences to improve mental health outcomes
Message from the Scientific Director, Dr. Samuel Weiss

On Jan. 23 and 24, The Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) Knowledge Gaps Consensus Workshop was INMHA’s first workshop of the year, but it was also the first workshop of its kind for the Institute:

  • no slides, or stuffy PowerPoint presentations
  • utilization of real-time, participant engagement
  • driven by people with lived/living experience (PWLE) and their expertise navigating supports, diagnosis and treatments for PTS in Canada
  • more time than any other topic was dedicated to exploring PTS from the Indigenous perspective, including ways of knowing, being and healing in Indigenous communities

The workshop was structured so PWLE expertise could effectively inform future PTS research and policy. We are creating an equal partnership with PWLE — the experience experts and citizen scientists — and the scientific community, government and non-governmental organizations that have the power to research, change and rebuild the system. Including different perspectives in research and in practice is beneficial for many reasons, but our primary goal for this workshop was to collaboratively inform research and improve mental health outcomes.

I want to sincerely thank the Indigenous Elders and PWLE participants for their inspiring stories, strong voices and enlightening insights — which will be used to inform PTS research and knowledge translation opportunities at CIHR.

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