PICS Study

04/19/2023

How are young Canadians making decisions about the COVID-19 vaccine? What barriers do youth encounter in getting vaccinated against COVID-19?

Psychology researchers at the University of Victoria would like to learn about the key factors associated with youths’ COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake. We are asking persons aged 14-25 complete a ~20 -minute survey, which will collect information about demographic characteristics, as well as health, psychological, and cognitive factors, and COVID-19 vaccine attitudes, experiences, and uptake.

If you are between the ages of 14 and 25 and are currently living in Canada, then you may be eligible to participate. Participants can enter for the chance to win one of ten $50 gift cards. Please visit https://bit.ly/YVCStudy to complete the survey.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Megan Ames (mames@uvic.ca) and Dr. Theone Paterson (tpaterson@uvic.ca)
The UVic Research Ethics study number is H22-01747.

05/07/2021

“What we are really trying to do is understand which groups are struggling the most and so that is one of the key takeaways from all of this work.... We are all in this together; we are all struggling... but there are some people who are struggling a lot worse. How can we identify those people? That is what our surveys, first of all are trying to do,” says Dr. Hasina Samji, co-lead of the Personal Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (PICS).

Sobering stats and ways forward.

04/26/2021

“Do we know what we need to do to have positive mental health, the same way we know what to do to achieve good physical health? I think now, more than ever, we as a society need to have that conversation, and also to reach out and extend support to those who don’t have the resources to cope.” — PICS co-lead, Dr. Hasina Samji, an assistant professor at SFU and a senior scientist with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

B.C. Children's Hospital research says two-thirds of youth report mood swings, anxiety or suicidal thoughts, up from one-third before COVID.

03/01/2021

"We have 3 main goals. The first is to follow people over time, [. . .] to see what those long term implications might be. Secondly, [. . .] we're particularly interested in the voices of vulnerable communities and people who might not have already had the opportunity to share their experiences. And third, most importantly, what we're looking for is the resources that have been most helpful for people over time, and what needs people have [. . .] so we can amplify those resources, or at least inform people, in the future."

Watch Health Matters: The ripple effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on families Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

02/18/2021

"Doctors S. Evelyn Stewart and Hasina Samji are leading the study that aims to gauge how the pandemic affects people's feelings and actions over time in order to learn how they manage and which resources may be helpful."

Researchers at BC Children's Hospital are trying to better understand the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on children and their families by asking them to…

02/18/2021

"A new online survey by researchers at BC Children’s Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) aims to better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of children, youth, adults and parents."

A new online survey by researchers at BC Children’s Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) aims to better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of children, youth, adults and parents.

02/18/2021

“We hope we can make a difference to improve people’s mental well-being now and in the future,” Dr. Hasina Samji says. “There is widespread recognition that we need to measure mental well-being at the population level and in groups that may be disproportionately affected by the pandemic."

A new online survey by researchers at BC Children’s Hospital, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU) aims to better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of children, youth, adults and parents.

02/10/2021

"Researchers at B.C. Children’s Hospital, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University are conducting a new online survey to understand the mental-health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth, parents, and adults.

The survey is open to everyone eight years of age and older.

B.C. Children’s Hospital psychiatry research director and UBC psychiatry professor Dr. S. Evelyn Stewart explained in a statement that this research will provide guidance for clinical and policy decisions in this pandemic and future ones as well."

Active and hospitalized cases continue to decrease but the number of variant cases has increased since last week.

02/10/2021

"This research has the potential to transform the lives of children and families across the province who are struggling with unmet mental health care needs," Stewart said in a news release. "We will provide decision-makers with rigorous evidence to guide clinical and policy decisions for this and future pandemics."

A new survey on the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is seeking input from children as young as eight years old.

02/10/2021

"All children and youth over the age of seven are invited to fill in a 20-30-minute online survey about their experiences. Parents are asked to share the experiences of one or all of their children, which takes an additional 20 minutes per child. The researchers are keen to hear directly from young people, whose voices have been missing so far from the conversation. They would also especially like to hear from families and young people from underserved and under-represented communities."

https://fraservalleynewsnetwork.com/2021/02/08/bc-childrens-hospital-survey-covid-mental-health-impacts-on-children-and-families/

02/10/2021

"Dr. S. Evelyn Stewart is the study co-lead and says, she suspects more people are suffering during the era of COVID-19.

“I do have suspicions that there may be much higher than normal rates of psychiatric diagnoses such as depression or generalized anxiety disorder or even obsessive-compulsive disorder, and without doing surveys of this type, it’s very hard to know.”"

A number of B.C. based researchers are teaming up, launching an online survey they hope will help them better understand the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children, and their parents.