About Us

What is DIVERT MENTAL HEALTH?

Change is needed to move from an unacceptably low bar of ‘cultural safety’ in mental health care to mental health care that rises to the challenge of integrating the diverse lived experiences of children, youth, and their families. Canada is at a watershed moment—to improve mental health care, and its accessibility and availability, we must integrate and affirm different approaches to how we develop, study, and provide it.

The Digital, Inclusive, Virtual, and Equitable Research Training in Mental Health Platform (DIVERT Mental Health) is a transdisciplinary mental health training platform dedicated to changing the course of mental health research and practice in Canada with children, youth, and their families. We are primarily funded by a multi million-dollar investment from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and enabled by a large investment in digital infrastructure and expertise from IBM Canada.

DIVERT sets out to harness the knowledge and expertise of a diverse range of multi-sectoral educators so we can all learn together through online experiences, national mentorship groups based on lived experiences, research collaborations (with patients, families, industries, Non-Governmental Organizations [NGOs], and health care organizations), annual in-person meetings, and the future evolution of a certificate program.

To create a national community of transdisciplinary mental health researchers and clinicians that will champion an inclusive and accessible mental health care system for children, youth, and families in Canada. No one university or mental health care organization can do this alone. We must co-create together to divert the course of mental health care in this country.

We will promote inclusivity through disseminating diverse cultural knowledges about mental health in children, youth, and their families; teaching about the role of socio-historical context in their mental health care; and supporting a framework for practice that integrates and does not compartmentalize these knowledges.

We will promote accessibility through disseminating practical knowledge about technologies that can facilitate mental health care and by promoting research collaborations with non-academic experts in industry and communities.

Anyone and Everyone

Our community is open to all people wanting to learn about accessible and inclusive mental health practices in research and practice with children, youth, and families. Become an Associate Fellow.

Docs, Post-docs, and ECRs

Developing a research project or research program that focuses on diverse knowledges in mental health and increasing accessibility through technology for children, youth, and/or their families? Become a Fellow.

Industry, NGO, Healthcare Organizations, and Academic Advocates

Are you on staff at a Business, an NGO, a Health Care Organization, or a Professor at a University that wants to build an ongoing partnership with us to support your mental health research, training, and/or practice with children, youth, and families? Become a Partner.