WE-SPARK Health Institute Releases Quarterly Report WE-SPARK Health Institute has released its 4th quarter report, highlighting key accomplishments from February – April 2022, wrapping up its third year. Highlights include: • added 54 new members for total of 860 members; • doubled its Student Volunteer Network to 54 students, logging over 800 hours this quarter; • launched a local grant competition with 30 Letter of Intent submissions; • hosted two think tanks with 86 participants. Highlighted success from past think tank presenters including $432,000 in grant funding; • increased active users of REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) platform by 20%, with over 10,000 records / participants, up 26% from Q3; • facilitated four adjunct appointments in the Department of Biomedical Sciences University of Windsor to support local physicians and healthcare providers to build their research programs; • hosted “Cheers to Hope” event to feature local research and raise support…
Project to train nurses to cope with heath-care crisis Reports of nurses leaving the profession during the pandemic due to burnout and overall distress was the impetus for a UWindsor-led research project that will develop a course to psychologically prepare nursing students for work in hospitals during health-care crises. Photo by Cedric Fauntleroy/Pexels. A new research project out of the University of Windsor aims to ensure nursing graduates have the extra psychological preparation they need to work in hospitals during health-care crises. Flowing from interviews with local nurses during the pandemic, the project will yield a 10-week training program for senior nursing students. It will first be offered at the UWindsor Faculty of Nursing, then rolled out at the University of Ottawa and Queen’s University. The pandemic has decimated the nursing profession, said psychology professor Dana Ménard, the lead researcher on the project. Dr. Ménard, fellow psychology professor Kendall Soucie, and nursing professors Laurie Freeman and Jody Ralph,…
Research and innovation park eyed for new mega-hospital site The site of the proposed mega-hospital at County Road 42 and the 9th Concession in Windsor is shown in this Aug. 18, 2021, file photo. PHOTO BY DAN JANISSE /Windsor Star Windsor Regional Hospital and the University of Windsor are pursuing a partnership for a health research and innovation park to be included with the new acute care hospital development. “Research and education has always been one of the main drivers behind the need for a new acute care hospital in the region,” said hospital CEO David Musyj. “Windsor Regional Hospital looks forward to this planning work with the University of Windsor to advance this concept further.” The new centre would become a hub for health care research, training and private sector health service providers focused on new startup ventures. It would feature connections with the local university’s Schulich School of Medicine, the Faculty of Science and its School of Nursing. “Through the years, we have continued to build on the vital…
Windsor Regional Hospital and University of Windsor Look To Expand Ongoing Partnership Windsor Regional Hospital and the University of Windsor are exploring a potential partnership around a new health and innovation park on lands purchased for the new future Windsor/Essex Acute Care Hospital. “Research and Education has always been one of the main drivers behind the need for a new acute care hospital in the region,” said David Musyj, WRH President and CEO. “Windsor Regional Hospital looks forward to this planning work with the University of Windsor to advance this concept further. The relationships developed by WE-SPARK Health Institute naturally transition into this exciting planning.” Rob Gordon, President & Vice Chancellor of the University of Windsor, is looking forward to the expanded opportunities the Health Innovation Park will bring to the region. “Through the years, we have continued to build on the vital connections between our institutions,” he said. “Students, especially those at the Faculty of Science, School of Nursing and the Schulich School…
Windsor public school board hires first wellness teacher to focus on student mental health The Greater Essex County District School Board hired its first wellness teacher to help students learn more about their mental health. (James Arthur Gekiere/Belga Mag/AFP/Getty Images) With reports of children's mental wellness significantly impacted over the course of the pandemic, Windsor's English public school board has created a new role to help youth prioritize their mental health. The Greater Essex County District School Board hired Jodi Nolin as its first wellness teacher at a time when youth across the country have faced increasing stress and pressures due to the pandemic. Nolin told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning that she is helping students bring more attention to their mind by engaging in mental health literacy lessons, social-emotional learning and mindfulness techniques. "When I come in the room, I tell them when we're in school we spend a lot of time developing our intelligence and strengthening our body to sports and exercise but historically…
Research team to develop sensors to aid transition to green energy sources Chemistry professors Bulent Mutus, Marcus Drover, and Simon Rondeau-Gagné are collaborating on a research project to develop sensors making storage and distribution of hydrogen safer Three UWindsor researchers are joining forces to help Canada transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources. They are developing sensing equipment that will enhance how dihydrogen gas is stored and transported. Chemistry professors Marcus Drover, Simon Rondeau-Gagné, and Bulent Mutus received a $366,400 NSERC Alliance Missions grant for their two-year proposal, “Strengthening Green Energy Sources in Canada: Optical Sensors for Safe Storage and Distribution of Hydrogen.” Each researcher will bring a unique expertise to the table. In a three-tiered approach, Dr. Drover will begin the process by making new small molecules that will interact with dihydrogen. Dr. Rondeau-Gagné will take those molecules, incorporate them into polymers and make extended thin film networks of these new materials…
Research probes effect of pandemic on treatment of people who use fentanyl Social work professor Adrian Guta is helping lead a research project exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic affected people who use fentanyl and those who treat them. How has the pandemic affected people who use the potentially deadly street drug fentanyl and those who treat them? A research project by University of Windsor social work professor Adrian Guta will delve into this question, shedding light on the wider impact the pandemic has had on Canadian society. “In the context of the pandemic, there’s been a lot of change in how we’re responding to opioid addiction and the drug crisis,” Dr. Guta said. “We know the pandemic has complicated access to care and treatment.” Guta, together with University of Toronto researcher Carol Strike, has been awarded a grant of nearly $322,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study how the COVD-19 pandemic and the nationwide epidemic of overdoses are changing addictions medicine. UWindsor postdoctoral fellow Katherine Rudzinski…
Local study finds elevated distress levels in kids due to COVID-19 pandemic Many Canadians are struggling with stress and depression due to the coronavirus pandemic. PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA FILE PHOTO A WE-Spark Health Institute study of the mental health of local children during the COVID-19 pandemic found elevated levels of psychological distress and increased symptoms across five of seven psychiatric disorders. The study involving 317 families and over 630 individuals found increased incidences of depression, irritability, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder. “We sought to look at how widespread each disorder was and we found it varied depending on the month we looked at,” said the study’s lead researcher Lance Rappaport, who is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Windsor. “Just how pronounced it was was connected to when a child felt unsafe.” The study, which was released Monday, was conducted between June 2020 and December 2021 and included children, parents or caregivers. WE-SPARK…
UWindsor researchers discover children’s mental health worsens when COVID-19 cases surge Photo courtesy CTV News Windsor A new scientific paper by University of Windsor researchers shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Ontario children. Overall, researchers say children and their parents or caregivers reported a broad impact of the pandemic on children’s psychological distress and psychiatric symptoms during the research phase from June 2020 through December 2021. The report shows children reported greater worry that they or a loved one might contract COVID-19 during months when there were more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths related to COVID-19. Greater worry that they or a loved one might contract COVID-19 was associated with elevated psychological distress and elevated symptoms on five of seven psychiatric disorders - depression, irritability, posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder. “Given the current public debate about public health measures to curtail the spread of COVID-19, particularly as…
