About the Partnership (Who We Are)
Community-University Research Alliance (CURA):
The Research Alliance for Children with Special Needs (RACSN)
 |
Gillian King
(Director of RACSN)
Marilyn Kertoy,
Jacqueline Specht,
and Melissa Currie
(RACSN Investigators)
|
About this Partnership: The Research Alliance for Children with Special
Needs (RACSN) is a partnership of researchers from the fields of education,
health, social services, and academia. RACSN is led by a community-based
research program located at Thames Valley Children's Centre, and partnered
with two local school boards, two social service agencies, and the
University of Western Ontario. RACSN addresses the issue of enhancing
children's participation through an integrated research program bridging
research and practice. The Alliance is based on an infrastructure model.
RACSN provided the necessary structure and organizational support to allow
partner groups to pool their energies, skills, and knowledge to provide a
concerted and coordinated research, dissemination, and training effort.
http://www.racsn.ca
CURA: Partnerships in Capacity Building, Housing, Community Economic Development
and Psychiatric Survivors
 |
Cheryl Forchuk, Academic Director |
About this Partnership: In this CURA, researchers, social service
professionals, community volunteers, as well as individuals who have experienced
mental health challenges, collaborate on a number of related projects to
evaluate existing models of supported housing. This CURA has developed a
template which seeks to explore and understand which type of housing works best
for whom, and improve placement success. This participatory approach to research
will give a real voice to a marginalized constituency, enabling them to share
their insights and opinions with community and academic partners and to develop
working relationships within their own community as well as between consumer,
social agency, professional, and academic communities.
http://publish.uwo.ca/~cforchuk/cura/index.htm
CURA: Youth Lifestyle Choices - Enhancement of Youth Resiliency and Reduction of Harmful Behaviours Leading
to Healthy Lifestyle Choices (YLC-CURA)
 |
Teena Willoughby and Heather Chalmers
(Co-Directors of YLC-CURA)
|
About this Partnership: The YLC-CURA is a long-term strategic partnership
between a number of Brock University faculty and Niagara community agencies to
better understand resilience and youth lifestyle choices. By examining factors
that enhance resilience, the team will focus on minimizing risk behaviours to a
responsible moderate level while protecting youth from adverse consequences. By
promoting health rather than limiting risk, the focus will be on all youth so
that strategies and interventions can encourage positive lifestyle choices for
all. The YLC-CURA is unequivocally committed to ensuring that all its members
have the opportunity to fully participate and influence its direction and work.
http://www.brocku.ca/cura/
Partnership: Therapeutic Relationships from Hospital to Community - Implementation of
Evidence Based Practice
 |
Cheryl Forchuk, Project's Principal Investigator |
About this Partnership: This four-year, $930,000 study is testing a new
approach to supporting people with chronic mental illness as they make the
transition from the hospital to the community. It involves 380 discharged
patients from Regional Mental Health Care London/St. Thomas (formally known as
London/St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital), the Centre for Mountain Health Care,
St. Joseph's Health Care, Hamilton (formally known as Hamilton Psychiatric
Hospital) and the Whitby Mental Health Centre. The overall objective of this
study is to assist individuals hospitalized with a chronic mental illness in
successful community living. The specific objectives are to determine the cost
and effectiveness of a transitional discharge model of care, and compare it to
the standard model of discharge. The transitional model focuses on interpersonal
relationships.
http://publish.uwo.ca/~cforchuk/tr/index.htm
Partnership: The CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
|
Mary Law and Peter Rosenbaum
(Co-Directors of CanChild) |
About this Partnership: The
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
is a Health System-Linked Research Unit funded by the Ontario Ministry of
Health. The Centre is sponsored by McMaster University and Hamilton Health
Sciences Corporation in Hamilton.
CanChild is a multi-disciplinary team whose
mandate is to conduct high quality research in the area of childhood disability.
A major goal of the unit is to foster the transfer of research findings into
clinical practice. The Research programs at
CanChild concentrate on children and
youth with disabilities and their families within the context of the communities
in which they live.
CanChild'
s focus is on the interrelationships between
individuals, their families, communities, and health systems. The focus of
research conducted by
CanChild is broad, and includes children and youth with
physical, developmental, and/or communicative needs who require rehabilitation
services, as well as their families.
http://www.canchild.ca