Mental health can be a deeply personal and challenging topic, but Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry PhD candidate Kesavi Kanagasabai isn't afraid to confront it.
Kanagasabai introduced a new campus program that creates space for students to talk about their mental health struggles. She's also creating a tool to improve research on a particularly challenging illness: Schizophrenia.
Tremendous progress has been made in the treatment of schizophrenia over time. Although there is no known cure for the condition that causes hallucinations and delusions, there are several forms of treatment, including medication and therapy. Still, much about the illness remains unknown.
"My goal is to build tools that will better assist researchers to assess these illnesses and work towards a cure for psychiatric and neurocognitive disorders," Kanagasabai said. "This technique allows for accurate measurements of the potential neurochemical imbalances that may be contributing towards the pathophysiology of schizophrenia."
But it's difficult to pinpoint where things go wrong.
"This tool will simplify the process," said Kanagasabai. "With this innovation, researchers can study and provide accurate data about the relationships between the neurochemicals of interest and the observed symptoms."
Kesavi Kanagasabai is passionate about treatments for mental illness. It drives her research and her creation of a new campus program to support those struggling with mental health. (Megan Morris/Schulich Medicine & Dentistry)
Destigmatizing mental health struggles still a work in progress
Raised in Scarborough, Ont., Kanagasabai moved to London, Ont. in 2015 to take the bachelor of medical science program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. She started in the master of science program in 2020 and shifted to pursue her PhD two years later. Kanagasabai was also the recipient of this year's Norman E. Nixon Marie Rämö Nixon Award, awarded to a graduate student working with a Robarts Research Institute scientist.
Growing up in a South Asian household, Kanagasabai was aware of the stigma around mental illness in her community, as well as the general public. Removing that stigma is still a work in progress for many in Canada, she said. Although there is a growing public awareness about the importance of mental health, many still disregard mental health care. Negative stereotypes around mental illnesses continue to be pervasive.
"Mental health-related symptoms are often coined with bad habits or irresponsibility rather than a coping mechanism to function," said Kanagasabai.
Everyone should have access to counselling and resources
While mental health resources are more accessible than ever, there are often financial barriers to counselling and resources. Kanagasabai wants everyone to be able to access mental health help. In September 2023, she introduced a free mental health counselling program called I.M. Well, available to graduate students at Western.
Kanagasabai is devoted to the project and its potential to help students, while keeping a strong focus on the research she hopes will help people affected by schizophrenia.
"She is working to understand what is the illness process, where are the roots, and the mechanism behind it," said Lena Palaniyappan, one of Kanagasabai's supervisors and a professor in the departments of psychiatry and medical biophysics.
"If we understand the molecular and chemical level of these problems, then we can devise new treatments or personalize existing treatments that really go and attack the prime causal elements for these conditions."
REACH OUT
I.M. Well is a virtual health suite where students can access counselling, legal, financial, nutritional, life and health counselling. The program provides students with mental health counselling in more than 180 languages and allows students on the enhanced plan to seek therapy with no added cost. This resource can be accessed at SOGS Student VI.
Students at Western can access mental health services, including same-day appointments with a counsellor, through the university's Health and Wellness Services.
