By Heidi Singer
From left to right: Recent Dalla Lana School of Public Health graduates Bill Liu, Altea Kthupi and Antonio Lorenzo are analyzing data for a project that seeks to better understand why student mental health levels varied during COVID-19 (supplied image)
Two research teams at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health are studying student mental health in close partnership with the best experts on the subject - students themselves.
There have been dozens of studies documenting the rise and fall of student mental health challenges at various points during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Professor France Gagnon and Assistant Professor Shaza Fadel, working with three master's students, discovered that researchers know very little about why mental health levels have varied so greatly.
So, the team is looking at the research in the context of world events and fluctuations in COVID restrictions by drawing on the students' own lived experiences during the pandemic. The goal is to strengthen post-pandemic recovery strategies and allow researchers to better advise on preparation for future health crises.
"The magnitude and nature of depression, anxiety, and stress-related symptoms in the student population are currently unknown," says Altea Kthupi, a co-principal investigator on the project who recently graduated with a master's degree in public health from the school. "But we also want to identify and understand the factors associated with student improvement or deterioration. Who are the students improving despite the progression of the pandemic, who's not improving - and what can be done to help them?"
Sarah Smith
The other team is working to address gaps in data regarding the needs and experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ students who are experiencing mental health challenges.
Supervised by Associate Professor Daniel Grace, the team will work with students to co-create accessible mental health resources for diverse 2SLGBTQ+ students, along with recommendations to increase and improve existing services.
"As a queer person who deals with mental health issues I've been through a lot in the system," says researcher Sarah Smith, a PhD candidate at Queen's University and research associate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health's Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research. "I've had some terrible experiences and some life-changing, amazing ones. Nobody deserves the awful parts and everyone deserves the amazing ones."
Both teams received funding from the Inlight Student Mental Health Research Initiative, a U of T institutional strategic initiative that supports research to improve student mental health.
Read the full story at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health
