Bright Ideas: Annual Research and Evaluation Highlights at CMHA Ottawa [Register now: May 9 webinar]

Apr 29, 2025

Learn about advancements in community-based mental health, housing and substance use healthcare at this free webinar for Mental Health Week.

Mark your calendar: Friday, May 9, at 9:30 a.m. and register now at https://brightideas2025.eventbrite.ca 

You’re invited to the fourth edition of CMHA Ottawa’s popular feature webinar series, Bright Ideas: Annual Research and Evaluation Highlights.

Are you interested in learning about the latest advancements in mental health care at the community level? Do you enjoy educational material delivered in comprehensive and dynamic ways by the researchers themselves? Are you curious how students, frontline staff and managers, and service users work together to contribute evidence to the thriving field of community-based care?

Presented by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch (CMHA Ottawa) as part of CMHA’s Mental Health Week 2025, this free webinar is the best possible way you could spend a Friday morning.

Along with its partners—primarily the University of Ottawa and Carleton University—CMHA Ottawa is at the forefront of research and evaluation activities in mental health, housing and substance use healthcare at the community level, an often overlooked yet vital part of Ontario’s healthcare system. Featuring several live exhibitions from students and researchers, along with CMHA Ottawa staff and peers, and a rapid-fire series of presentations, Bright Ideas 2025 is knowledge mobilization at its finest; this webinar will leave you feeling inspired and optimistic about the future of mental health care.

Background

The day-to-day work that takes place at CMHA Ottawa is innovative, impactful, varied and compelling. We work every day with eligible individuals in the Ottawa area that live with a mental illness and/or substance use disorder, many of whom are experiencing chronic homelessness, providing evidence-informed and person-centered programs and services that empower individuals and promote good mental health.

As a community-based agency, we provide outreach services, case management, housing, counselling, specialty services, training and more. This range of services makes our organization a suitable setting for important research and evaluation projects that will make lasting contributions to the field of mental health and addictions services.

Every year, our staff and clients work with students from the University of Ottawa—a proud official partner, Carleton University, Algonquin College, and others, on a variety of research and evaluation projects and clinical practice placements. These students play a critical role in supporting our capacity to engage in research, and they perhaps represent our future mental health clinicians and researchers.

This free, virtual event will feature collaborators from various disciplines as they describe the range of projects that they worked on with CMHA Ottawa during 2024-2025 fiscal and school year.

Details

Who: This webinar is ideal for people who are interested in community-based care, mental health services, healthcare, housing and homelessness, substance use healthcare, academia (social sciences, medicine, social work, psychology, etc.), and clients and professionals in these fields. Presented by the Decision Support and Accountability Team (DSAT) at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch (CMHA Ottawa), along with student researchers and university faculty, frontline staff and management, service users and peers. The event is hosted by the insightful (and hilarious) Dr. Donna Pettey, co-Director of Research, Evaluation, and Integration at CMHA Ottawa.

What: A free webinar round-up of research and evaluation activities undertaken at CMHA Ottawa over the past year; projects that will make lasting contributions to the evidence base in the community healthcare sector, improving the quality of services as well as the lives of countless individuals experiencing mental illness, substance use disorder and chronic homelessness, while empowering clients to enhance the programs and services they receive.

When: Friday, May 9, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (with breaks and intermission)

Where: Zoom (link shared after registration on Eventbrite)

Why: To illustrate the important role of research and evaluation in delivering vital community-based programs and services in the fields of mental health, housing and homelessness, and substance use health.

How: Register for free on Eventbrite. Feel free to pick and choose which presentations you would like to check out based on the agenda and come and go as you please!

Detailed Agenda – Bright Ideas 2025

Get comfortable and enjoy our feature presentations—primarily focused on Housing First—flanked by an exciting series of timed rapid-fire presentations, or pick and choose pick and choose from the menu—and come and go freely—for an experience customized to your areas of interest.

Opening Statements (9:30–9:45 a.m.)

• Dr. Susan Farrell, CEO CMHA Ottawa
• Dr. Tim Aubry, Professor, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa

Five-Minute Rapid Fire Presentations: Leveraging Data to Understand the Needs of Service Users (9:50- 10:05am)

• Characteristics of Contacts Between People Exiting Homelessness and their Housing First Providers; Selena Houmani, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, and Allison Soler, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo
• Development of Discharge Planning 101 Training at CMHA Ottawa: A Qualitative Study; Rebecca Rutland, School of Social Work, Dalhousie University
• A Review of the Effects of Opioid Use and Overdose on Cognition, Highlighting Implications and Resources for CMHA Ottawa; Melissa Arslan, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Feature Presentations: Cutting-Edge Evaluation and Knowledge Mobilization in Community Mental Health (10:10–11:00 a.m.)

• Housing First: What’s Next? – CMHA Ottawa Involvement in National Housing First Consultation: Raising Client and Service Provider Voices; Aaron James, Ryan Vachon, Dr. Susan Farrell, CMHA Ottawa and Dr. Tim Aubry, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa
• Implementation of Housing First with People with Complex Substance Use: The Full House Initiative; Dr. Christina Mutschler, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, and Mik Phipps and Marcela Farias, CMHA Ottawa
• Community Building: A Social Prescribing Intervention for Housing First Clients; Dr. Christina Mutschler and Minda Wood, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, and Mik Phipps, CMHA Ottawa
• A Formative Evaluation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees at CMHA Ottawa; Dr. Konrad Czechowski, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, and Dania Versailles, CMHA Ottawa

Five-Minute Rapid Fire Presentations: Conducting Research for Long-Term Program Outcomes (11:05–11:20 a.m.)

• A Review of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training Resources for CMHA Ottawa; Sebastien Church, Faculty of Science, Carleton University
• Harm Reduction for All; CityStudio Ottawa, Health Sciences, University of Ottawa
• Familiar Faces Evaluation: Review of Program Outcomes; Jonathan Samosh, School of Psychology, University of Ottawa

Closing Remarks (11:25–11:35 a.m.)

• Dr. Maryann Roebuck, CMHA Ottawa and Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services, University of Ottawa

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch (CMHA Ottawa), is an independent, community-based non-profit organization that provides services for eligible individuals in the Ottawa area with severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorder, many of whom are experiencing chronic homelessness or are vulnerably housed. CMHA Ottawa is dedicated to promoting good mental health, developing and implementing sustainable support systems and services, and encouraging public action to strengthen community mental health services and related policies and legislation.