“Living and working in northern Ontario, a region that is under-serviced, has been a privilege; I am grateful for this opportunity to have protected research time to answer under-researched questions. I hope that the answers will improve healthcare to some of Ontario’s most vulnerable populations.” – Dr. Chiachen Cheng

Dr. Chiachen Cheng’s Current Appointments:

• Assistant Professor, Clinical Sciences Division, Section of Psychiatry, Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM)
• Site Director – Psychiatry – Thunder Bay Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM)
• Psychiatry Post-graduate Program Research Coordinator Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM)
• Medical Director Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre: Thunder Bay
• Child & Adolescent, Adult Psychiatrist & Physician Researcher St. Joseph’s Care Group: Thunder Bay

Dr. Chiachen Cheng’s Research:

• Dr. Cheng’s research focus is in health services and policy research, especially as it intersects with vulnerable populations such as Indigenous youth, remote and rural populations, and people with severe mental illness. Central question to her work has been, how can we better deliver accessible, quality and equitable services to youth experiencing severe mental illness, in rural and remote Ontario?
• Each of the proposed projects under this salary support are about enhancing networks for improved healthcare delivery. This award will support research in three ways: 1) to finish the work of the NorthBEAT Collaborative by supporting end-of-grant knowledge translation, especially involving members of the Collaborative who are youth, and who lived-experience access services; 2) to develop MAYNet, a proposal to develop a national strategy for youth-friendly mental health and addiction services; 3) to support the knowledge translation workshops of NORTHH, a proposal to establish a practice-based research network among primary care and community specialists in northern Ontario

About the PSI-50 Mid-Career Clinical Research Award

In celebration of PSI Foundation’s 50th anniversary, this one-time award provides up to $300,000 in funding over three or four years for a clinician-researcher between five and 15 years of their first academic appointment. This award recognizes that this phase of a researcher’s career is particularly challenging, with additional academic roles and responsibilities as well as the ongoing clinical work, and it will protect at least 50% of a recipient’s time for research that aligns with PSI Foundation priorities.