Zach Walsh, a clinical psychologist and professor in psychology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Psychological service adapts to support community during COVID-19

At a time when many are in critical need of counselling and mental health services, UBC Okanagan’s Problematic Substance Clinic use has announced that it will be shifting its services online to support the community during COVID-19.

Founded in 2018 by Zach Walsh, a clinical psychologist and professor in psychology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the clinic’s mandate is to help members of the Okanagan community reduce the negative effects of drug and alcohol use.

Walsh says physical distancing measures due to COVID-19 have made it challenging for his team to see patients in-clinic, prompting him to transition the service into an online delivery format.

And it comes at a time when, he says, the need is greater than ever.

"Evidence suggests that problematic substance use is on the rise during the pandemic; we’re trying to fill a crucial gap in our community for folks in need of support," explains Walsh, adding that virtual delivery also creates an opportunity for those living in rural Okanagan communities to access care.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction acknowledges the effects of living in a COVID-19 world may indeed lead to an increase in substance-use disorders, noting that major life changes, feelings of social isolation and anxiety from economic despair could result in increasing problematic use of drugs and alcohol.

“I want people in the Okanagan to know that there’s support available to help reduce harms associated with using drugs like alcohol, opioids and others, even during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Walsh. “We’re here to help, whether people want to cut back, quit or just change how they use.”

The clinic uses the latest evidence-based treatments to address substance-use disorders from a harm-reduction perspective, providing low-barrier, online treatments for those seeking help with substance abuse.

Walsh is quick to explain that their approach caters to the individual, rather than being one-size-fits-all.

“The treatment team develops individualized intervention plans using approaches like cognitive-behavioural therapy and motivational interviewing to help clients attain their substance-use goals,” says Walsh. “We’re fortunate to have an excellent team of doctoral-level students under my supervision.”

“We meet people where they are at, in a non-judgemental, supportive environment — that’s the care you can expect from this clinic.”

The clinic will be accessible to all, with fees charged on a sliding scale based on income. Those looking for further information are invited to visit the clinic’s webpage.

Please note: the clinic is not able to offer crisis or emergency services.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

Lesley Lutes is a professor of psychology and director of clinical training at UBC Okanagan, as well as director of public advocacy for the BC Psychological Association (BCPA).

Successful BC psychological first-aid program to be replaced with two online options

It was nearing the end of March—and Lesley Lutes recalls noticing a shift in attitudes from those who thought the COVID-19 outbreak would be short-lived.

Lutes, professor of psychology and director of clinical training at UBC Okanagan, as well as director of public advocacy for the BC Psychological Association (BCPA), anticipated the coronavirus—and its mental health implications—would be here for an extended period of time, motivating her to begin work recruiting fellow psychologists to offer free teletherapy services to front-line and essential workers.

Ultimately recruiting more than 250 psychologists, Lutes was able to expand the service in April to all British Columbians—completely free of charge.

Each caller shared their COVID-19 story with a registered psychologist, and according to Lutes, over two-thirds of callers have been classified as experiencing moderate levels of distress.

“We’ve received calls ranging from general anxiety to acute homicide and domestic abuse issues, suicide risks and front-line workers who took the virus home to family members,” she says.

“What concerns me most is the high number of callers, mostly from the general population, in moderate distress. Without proper access to evidence-based resources, prevention and intervention services along with follow-up, these individuals may experience a further decline in their mental health.”

This is consistent with what Lutes and colleagues found in a review paper currently in Psynopsis, Canada’s Psychology Magazine, which looked at the mental health impacts and evidence-based solutions to address the long-term implications of COVID-19.

“After reviewing the data, both from the teletherapy service and the psychological impacts and implications globally, it’s clear that people are in need of the next step in care,” says Lutes. “The telephone-based service was the first step, but many folks are now in need of skills for psychological recovery or intervention.”

This extreme need for continued mental health support has driven Lutes to transition the temporary teletherapy line—ceasing operations on July 31—into two online solutions.

Thanks to private donor funding, university support and partnerships with BCPA, Vancouver Coastal Health and Kelty’s Key, a virtual walk-in well-being clinic and an email-assisted online therapy program are now being offered.

“These partnerships enable us to offer these supports for free and deliver them in a virtual, distance-learning format, making them accessible to all British Columbians regardless of income or postal code,” says Lutes.

UBCO’s walk-in well-being clinic provides patients with a 30-minute consultation via web or phone. The sessions will be conducted by a doctoral student in clinical psychology and supervised by a registered psychologist. Sessions are aimed at providing support, resources and, if needed, referral for short-term psychological recovery sessions.

Kelty’s Key is an evidence-based online therapy program created by psychologists at Vancouver Coastal Health. It is also run by graduate students and overseen by registered psychologists, uses the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy, and focuses on learning new skills and developing effective coping strategies.

“Virtual support creates instant equity, access and care—and creates a lifeline for those unable to afford psychological services. At the same time, we are training the next generation of registered psychologists.”

Lutes, however, is the first to acknowledge that this is temporary, and given its limited capacity can only provide care to a fraction of those in need—prompting her to continue working with all levels of government and stakeholders to find longer-term solutions.

“The United Nations has warned that a mental health crisis is looming—and that’s completely understandable,” she says.

“COVID-19 has cost us family members, livelihoods, social interactions and much more. If we truly want to rebound from these catastrophic losses—investing in mental health is how we get there.”

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

A physician uses data science in healthcare research.

UBCO student drops the books, dons medical gear amid COVID-19 outbreak

Ngan Nguyen Lyle was studying for an upcoming data science quiz when she got the call.

Lyle, a Master of Data Science (MDS) student at UBC Okanagan and medical doctor, was being summoned to return to work to support Interior Health’s COVID-19 response team.

“It wasn’t a tough decision,” she says. “I had been following the outbreak in the media and I was starting to realize that this was something extraordinary. I was already thinking about calling former colleagues to see if I could help before I was contacted.”

With the support of her professors and her physician-husband, Lyle returned to work full-time as an infectious disease doctor at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) in late-March.

MDS student and medical doctor Ngan Nguyen Lyle.

Having worked as an internal medicine resident during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic, Lyle had experience working in stressful environments. But this time was different.

“It was incredibly challenging,” she says. “I was asked to help the infection control team who had been working long days for weeks before I arrived—they were exhausted.”

Lyle worked most days on KGH’s COVID-19 floor, supporting staff who were caring for patients with confirmed or suspected infection due to the virus. She also supported staff in the Intensive Care Unit and the emergency department. She also worked in a somewhat investigative role, reviewing virus case files and addressing questions and concerns brought up by staff.

Though Lyle had previously worked in a clinical setting, she’s grateful for the infection control experience that the outbreak provided her.

“It challenged me,” she says. “I really had to try and find a balance and take everything into consideration.”

After five weeks of supporting the COVID-19 response team without any significant surge in cases, Lyle has shifted her focus back to completing her master’s degree.

Though it’s unlikely Lyle will graduate with her classmates due to the volume of work missed, she’s working with professors to make up assignments and plans to complete the program later this year.

“I definitely don’t regret going back to work,” says Lyle. “Graduating is important to me, but when your community is facing a once-in-a-century pandemic, there was no question as to where I was needed most.”

Now that she’s dropped the scrubs and picked up the books again, her goal is to apply the concepts she’s learning in the MDS program to medicine.

Before moving to the Okanagan, Lyle worked as a research fellow at UBC Vancouver studying sepsis—a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body’s response to an infection.

“I was exposed to data informatics in that role but I didn’t have the quantitative or technical skills to engage in those analyses. I wanted to change that,” she explains. “That’s why I came back to school.”

Though Lyle has found the program challenging due to the heavy focus on mathematics, statistics and computer programming, she says it’s been an enjoyable and eye-opening experience.

“Before MDS I was skeptical of the role artificial intelligence and machine learning could play in healthcare — but now that I understand what’s under the hood, the statistics behind the algorithms, I’m more open to the possibility.”

As for the doctors, nurses and hospital staff Lyle worked alongside to care for COVID-19 patients, she’s still in awe.

“I just want to say that they’re all so dedicated, hardworking and that they deserve recognition too. Healthcare is a community effort.”

UBCO collaborates with BCPA and province to offer psychological first-aid service

All British Columbians now have access to free, psychological first-aid thanks to a collaboration between UBC Okanagan, the BC Psychological Association, and the province.

The service, originally launched for front-line health care workers last week, will now provide telephone-based support to any BC resident experiencing stress, anxiety or uncertainty related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“We’re expanding this service based on extreme need,” says Lesley Lutes, professor of psychology at UBC Okanagan and registered psychologist. “Every person is being affected by COVID-19, and they deserve access to care.”

Residents seeking assistance can access the service by filling out a short online form on the BCPA website or by calling 604-827-0847. They will then be contacted from one of 200 volunteer registered psychologists within 24 to 48 hours.

Once submitted, they will receive a call from one of 200 volunteer registered psychologists within 24 to 48 hours.

Considered best practice in times of crisis, psychological first-aid is a brief, up to 30-minute, telephone consultation designed to provide information and strategies to help people cope with mental health struggles related to traumatic events.

Lutes points to research following the SARS epidemic in 2003 to demonstrate the mental distress that health emergencies can cause.

“The study found those who experienced quarantine were at a high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” explains Lutes. “What’s even more concerning, is that the longer the quarantine, the higher the risk of PTSD.”

Lutes stresses that by offering services like psychological first-aid early on, the risk of PTSD and other mental health impacts can be reduced.

While confident this service will provide much-needed urgent support for many, Lutes is currently working to identify long-term resources that will provide the care she says British Columbians need.

“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented compassion—and it’s important that we keep helping each other the best we can,” says Lutes.

“Whether it’s the nurse who is going to care for our most sick and vulnerable, the grocery store clerk ensuring shelves are stocked to keep us fed, or families choosing to stay home to stop the spread, we all need to do our part and look after our mental health. We will get through this, together.”

For more information and to register for psychological first-aid, visit the BCPA website or call 604-827-0847.

Rebecca Tyson, professor of mathematical biology.

Research links polarization, echo chambers to the spread of disease

Understanding how disease is passed from one individual to another has long been key to protecting populations from diseases like COVID-19. But new research from UBC’s Okanagan campus suggests that polarized opinions and apathy towards taking action can move through society like a virus and can seriously endanger efforts to contain a pandemic.

Rebecca Tyson is a professor of mathematical biology at UBC Okanagan and study lead author. She says that opinions and behaviours—like engaging in frequent hand washing, avoiding physical contact, or taking the threat of a pandemic seriously—can themselves spread throughout society and play an important role in how disease is transmitted during an epidemic.

“While we didn’t have COVID-19 specifically in mind when we conducted our research, we did try to imagine an epidemic that didn’t have a vaccine and that was best prevented by hand washing and other relatively simple actions,” says Tyson. “Behaviours like these can have extremes on either end of the spectrum, from denying the problem and doing nothing to completely isolating oneself.”

Using a mathematical model for both the spread of opinion—or opinion dynamics—and the spread of disease, she and her team were interested in how the presence, distribution and transmission of extreme behaviours can influence the epidemiology of a pandemic. They were particularly interested in how quickly a pandemic can take hold, the infection peak, the final number of those infected and the risk of a second peak.

“Our results show that opinion dynamics have a profound effect on the progression of disease in a population,” says Tyson. “In particular, the state of public opinion at the onset of a pandemic can have enormous influence—either dramatically reducing the fraction of the population that will be infected and the peak epidemic size, or making the epidemic worse than it would be otherwise.”

Tyson points to Hong Kong as an illustrative case of a population that was quick to adopt physical distance rules and were highly compliant with government regulations to eliminate spread, noting that COVID-19 is largely under control there. She adds that other countries, where compliance with government regulations was lower or slower, are having a much harder time.

While she’s quick to point out that her research is focused on mathematical models, she adds that the current COVID-19 outbreak is already showing some of the same outcomes she predicted in her models.

“Our models show that when faith in opinion influencers, like public health officials, is high, extreme preventative behaviours like quarantine and social distancing spread quickly through the population and the pandemic slows,” says Tyson. “This is exactly what we’re seeing in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea.”

On the other hand, Tyson says that populations that are politically polarized can see the disease spread much more quickly. Extreme behaviours, like disbelief in the problem, are amplified through influencer ‘echo chambers,’ which include mainstream or social media, creating pockets where the disease can spread more quickly.

“I believe this is part of the issue in the United States, where faith in government and public health officials is perhaps weaker than it is elsewhere and where there has been mixed messaging from different levels of government,” Tyson adds.

Looking to the future, she says her model shows that sustained and extreme physical distancing and hygiene behaviours are necessary to keep a highly-infectious disease at bay.

While the research provides a useful model for explaining the evolution of a pandemic, Tyson says that there are limitations.

“We assume things like a well-mixed population and we’re simplifying very complex human behaviour,” she says. “But there are definitely lessons in how opinion can shape the course of a pandemic and how we can leverage media and influencers to help keep public opinion from making a difficult problem worse.”

Event tackles complex ideas in seven minutes and 12 slides

What: Relax-a-Cucha
Who: Eight expert presenters
When: Wednesday, March 4, from 5 to 7:30 pm
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, Kelowna Branch, 1380 Ellis Street

Making difficult concepts accessible and understandable for everyone is hard enough, but to do it in less than seven minutes is an especially unique challenge. That’s the idea behind Relax-a-Cucha, an event organized every two years by the Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER) at UBC Okanagan.

This year’s theme is ‘literacies writ large’ and is organized in partnership with the Okanagan Regional Library and Project Literacy. It’s a partnership that’s a natural fit with the theme, says Christine Schreyer, associate professor of anthropology and acting director of ICER.

“Literacies are all about increasing understanding of complex issues and is so much more than just reading and writing,” says Schreyer. “The Relax-a-Cucha model of short presentations of seven minutes and 12 image-laden slides, is a more relaxed version of a Pecha Kucha—a fast-paced storytelling format—and lends itself really well to the idea of increasing understanding and making research accessible.”

Schreyer says there are a total of eight presentations with a diversity of topics, ranging from the language of emojis to the art of visiting Indigenous lands to the complexity of genders, each with a focus on increasing public literacy in those areas.

“This is an ideal event for anyone that’s interested in understanding lots of different ideas all in one, ‘snack-sized’ go,” says Schreyer.

The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited so registration is encouraged: www.eventbrite.ca/e/relax-a-cucha-2020-literacies-writ-large-tickets-94717016145

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in 2005 in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose territory the campus resides. As part of UBC—ranked among the world’s top 20 public universities—the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca

An image of Franz Ferdinand visiting the Okanagan in 1893.

The man whose death ignited the First World War visited in 1893

What: History and Sociology Speaker Series
Who: Maury Williams, professor emeritus of history, UBC Okanagan
When: Wednesday, April 3 starting at 6:45 p.m.
Where: Okanagan Regional Library, 1380 Ellis Street, Kelowna

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, began a round-the-world journey in 1892. After extended visits in India, Australia, and Japan, he arrived in Vancouver in September 1893.

From there he journeyed to the Okanagan where he spent a week hunting near Penticton; he also briefly visited Kelowna. Ferdinand would later become a key figure in history as his assassination in 1914 sparked the beginning of the First World War.

The community is invited to join UBC Okanagan Professor Emeritus Maury Williams at a special history presentation on April 3. Williams will use photographs from Ferdinand’s 1893 visit to share the story of his journey.

This talk is organized by UBC Okanagan’s history and sociology department, in partnership with the Okanagan Regional Library. It will focus on Ferdinand analysis and impressions of life in the Okanagan.

This event is free and open to the public. To register or find out more, visit:  franzferdinandokanagan.eventbrite.ca

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca.

Three professors named Researcher of the Year

UBC’s Okanagan campus is home to nearly 300 faculty researchers that are exploring some of the most urgent challenges, newest ideas and most ground-breaking technologies in the world.

The university this week named its 2019 Researchers of the Year. These prestigious annual prizes are awarded to the campus’ top researchers, with this year’s recipients recognized for their contributions to the development of innovative digital tools for marginalized communities, advances in sustainable energy and construction, and support for youth living with developmental disabilities and autism.

Awardees for 2019 are Associate Professor Jonathan Corbett in the category of social sciences and humanities, Professor Kasun Hewage in the category of natural sciences and engineering and Associate Professor Rachelle Hole in the category of health.

“This award recognizes outstanding UBCO faculty members who have carried out highly impactful work during their time at UBC,” says Vice-Principal, Research Philip Barker. “Professors Corbett, Hewage and Hole epitomize excellence in research and creative scholarship and are leaders in their respective fields and disciplines. Each of them works across multiple fields to help make the world a better place.”

Student researcher awards were also presented this year to master's student Emily Giroux and doctoral student Katrina Plamondon.

About UBC Okanagan’s award-winning researchers

Social Sciences and Humanities Researcher of the Year: Associate Professor Jonathan Corbett

While the science and art of cartography may have ancient roots, Associate Professor Jonathan Corbett is a modern cartographer who is working to map out how digital multimedia technologies can help preserve and strengthen remote or marginalized communities.

He is one of the country’s leaders in bringing geoinfomatics to a web-based, community-facing, knowledge platform. His Geolive software uses an online map as a storytelling tool to help marginalized communities feel empowered and overcome social exclusion.

“His technological sophistication, coupled with his steadfast commitment to interdisciplinary and community-based research is what makes Dr. Corbett’s work so remarkable,” says Mike Evans, associate dean of research, graduate and post-doctoral studies in the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC Okanagan. “As a critical cartographer, he has made significant contributions to the field and to the communities with which he works.”

Natural Sciences and Engineering Researcher of the Year: Professor Kasun Hewage

Kasun Hewage is a professor of engineering and associate director with UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre. He takes a holistic approach to investigating smart energy and construction sustainability. His expertise includes life cycle thinking based analysis of cost-effective and renewable energy production and green construction processes that are coordinated by cutting edge science and technologies.

Earlier this year, Hewage was named the inaugural FortisBC Smart Energy Chair, with the goal of investigating how energy use in BC can be optimized to reduce the province’s greenhouse gas footprint.

“Dr. Hewage’s research and scholarly contributions are extensive,” says Rehan Sadiq, associate dean of the School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan. “His work brings together academic and industry stakeholders to access the most pertinent facts required for sustainable building decisions, a crucial area of study as the world continues to strive towards sustainability.”

Health Researcher of the Year: Associate Professor Rachelle Hole

With a career spanning over 20 years working with individuals with physical and developmental disabilities, associate professor Rachelle Hole has focused her research on the socio-cultural practices that promote inclusion and equity. She has a particular interest in participatory research methods and strives to work directly with communities to empower participants.

Her most recent work, the Transiting Youth with Disabilities and Employment (TYDE) project, was awarded $1.3M in federal funding, involves working directly with community groups to help prepare youth living with intellectual disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder find meaningful employment later in life.

“Dr. Hole has a unique ability to pull groups together and to catalyze relationships between researchers, community members, and other stakeholders to build a shared vision,” says Evans. “She consistently generates policy-relevant insights and knowledge that shapes programs and practices – and indeed people’s lives – in very immediate ways.”

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world.

To find out more, visit: ok.ubc.ca.

Everything that grows in the Okanagan will be impacted by climate change, population growth, consumption, production and changes in land use. Learn more at the Okanagan Research Forum on December 3.

What: Okanagan Research Forum
Who: UBC Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services and UBC Okanagan Institute for Community Engaged Research
When: Monday, December 3 from 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.; keynote lecture at noon
Where: Summerhill Pyramid Winery ballroom, 4870 Chute Lake Road, Kelowna

The Okanagan Research Forum invites the community to listen to experts and take part in an open discussion about the future of food production in the Okanagan.

The forum is hosted by UBC Okanagan’s Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services (BRAES) and the Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER). It’s a collaboration with partner organizations in an effort to share information and encourage conversation between the community, government and academia.

Presenters from local organizations include Westbank First Nation, the Certified Organic Association, the City of Kelowna, the Central Okanagan Food Policy Council, the B.C. Wildlife Federation, the En’owkin Centre and the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems.

This year’s theme is to explore changes in local food systems and will consider issues such as climate change, access to land, consumption, sustainable food production and future land use.

Four expert panels will discuss agricultural land use, policy, production and consumption. Each panel will be moderated by a UBC Okanagan professor or alumnus, and include farmers, representatives from relevant organizations and other experts. The goal is to explore how 'eating the Okanagan' applies to social, cultural and ecological systems. The day will conclude with a research poster session accompanied by a wine and cheese event.

The afternoon keynote lecture on indigenous plant foods will be presented by Nancy Turner, emeritus professor and ethnobotanist from the University of Victoria. All four panel discussions and the keynote lecture are open to the public. There is a nominal registration fee for the day to cover the cost of food and beverages.

This year’s forum is sponsored by UBC Okanagan’s BRAES, ICER, the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, the College of Graduate Studies and the BC Institute of Agrologists.

To register, or get more information, visit okresearchforum.geolive.ca or contact Carolina Restrepo at carolina.restrepo@ubc.ca.

About UBC's Okanagan campus

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning in the heart of British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. Ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world, UBC is home to bold thinking and discoveries that make a difference. Established in 2005, the Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

UBC Okanagan researcher working with community groups to develop online education

Researchers from UBC’s Okanagan campus have received over $1.3M in federal funding to prepare youth living with intellectual disabilities (ID) or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to find meaningful employment later in life.

“For most, going to work and earning a paycheque is a routine part of life,” says Rachelle Hole, principal investigator on the Transiting Youth with Disabilities and Employment (TYDE) project. “But for those living with ID or ASD, finding a job can feel out of reach. It should come as no surprise, then, that only 22 per cent of Canadians with ID or ASD have some form of paid employment and those that do often receive low wages and work few hours.”

Hole, who is an associate professor at UBC Okanagan’s School of Social Work and Co-Director for the Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship, says that TYDE aims to shift those statistics. The project, which was recently awarded $742,089.00 from the Canadian Institute for Health Research and $589,561 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, will spend the next year developing curriculum for an online interactive learning environment to help those with ID and ASD—also called self-advocates for their efforts in speaking up for themselves and others—improve their knowledge and future employment outcomes.

“The research is very clear,” says Hole. “Supporting self-advocates as they transition from school to adult life and giving them opportunities to contribute through meaningful work has enormous benefits for both the individual and the businesses they work for.”

She also points out that self-advocates have above average attendance, a low turnover rate and evidence shows that businesses that offer employment opportunities have higher staff morale and are seen more favourably than their competitors.

The TYDE Project is unique in that its curriculum will be focused not just on self-advocates but also on their caregivers, who Hole says have often been overlooked but who play an important role in early interventions. Hole also highlights the diversity of partners on the project, which include academia, not-for-profit and government from across BC.

“This is certainly the first time this much expertise and resource from around the province have coordinated to help solve this problem,” says Hole. “We’ll spend the next 12 months pouring over past research and existing resources to develop the most effective learning modules we can, based on our collective knowledge.”

John Graham, director of UBC Okanagan’s School of Social Work, welcomes the new funding, which he says will make a real difference in the lives of self-advocates.

“This is an important initiative and one that will help those with developmental disabilities live richer and more fulfilling lives,” says Graham. “I’m proud that one of our professors is playing such a leading role.”

Hole is planning for the first cohort of self-advocates to test the new online tool in the fall of 2019 and the team expects that as the tool is refined, it will prove useful to self-advocates beyond just BC.

“While the resources are being developed here in BC, our intention is for this tool to be scalable and applicable nationally or even internationally,” says Hole.

“I’m hoping this can position a new generation of engaged and hard-working self-advocates to find their place in the job market.”