Taking Care Of Your Brain

With all the urgency of controlling COVID-19’s impact on our physical health, it’s easy to forget its impact on mental health. To help, CAN-BIND stepped in to offer strategies for dealing with depression during the pandemic and partnered with individuals living with depression to develop a series of 12 videos aimed at the general public. Topics include meditation, sleep hygiene, eating habits, and exercise. To date these videos have been viewed nearly 2000 times on YouTube.

A video project facilitated through CP-NET was awarded a Special Commendation through The Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health’s 2019 Talks Video Competition. Titled, “I can talk! Technology gives voice to children and youth who cannot speak”, the video focused on raising awareness and building support for the use of technology to aid communication for children with disabilities.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, POND created a webpage dedicated to resources to help families and caregivers with neurodiverse children. This included the launch of a video social story called #KidsvsCovid that was developed by kids to help explain COVID-19 to their peers.

POND Network’s project, “Perspectives of Mental Health Among Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disorders” received the CHILD-BRIGHT’s KT Innovator Incubator grant. The funding will help the team further their work to amplify the voices of youth with neurodevelopmental disorders in mental health discussions and improve communications between youth and healthcare professionals.

In March 2020, OBI and the Ontario Science Centre partnered to host “Great Conversations: The Mind Series”. The first talk, “Science Meets Psychedelics”, explored psychedelic drugs like MDMA and ketamine as a treatment option for individuals living with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. View full OBI Public Talk here and read a summary on our blog.

In early 2020, OBI hosted, “The F-Words: Finding the Ability in Disability”, moderated by the Globe and Mail’s André Picard. The discussion aimed to shift the public perspective on disability – instead of focusing on what individuals can’t do, one should focus on what they are able to accomplish. Built upon the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health, CanChild’s F-words (favourite words), have made an incredible impact across the globe. The event was captured on video and is available on OBI’s YouTube channel.

In April 2019, OBI’s Public Talk, “Pain in Children: What we don’t know can hurt them” focused on raising awareness and generating dialogue on pain management strategies for children – especially kids living with cerebral palsy. The discussion included a first-hand experience of navigating chronic pain throughout childhood, how the research community is working to better translate their findings into tangible tools for families and, if possible, get ahead of pain. View full OBI Public Talk here.

CAN-BIND launched a podcast to share the latest in depression research this year that has since produced two episodes. The first is on neuroplasticity, depression and psychedelics and the second discusses ketamine versus electroconvulsive therapy for treatment-resistant depression. The podcast, as well as full transcripts of each episode, can be accessed here.