UPDATE: CIHR Operating Grant, COVID-19 Mental Health & Substance Use Service Needs and Delivery

International eConnect Online Network

Across the globe, mental health problems have been on the rise due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health restrictions and the limited access to mental health resources have been particularly difficult for teens and their families. This led to increased mental health problems among teens and higher burden for the parents. 

Our large-scale, multisite, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded research initiative helped to address the urgent need for accessible mental health interventions for vulnerable youth and families through the international implementation of eConnect Online. The eConnect Online program is the virtual adaption of the Connect Program. It builds on the extensive and strong evidence for the in-person Connect program. eConnect Online is a 10-week manualized, attachment-based, and trauma-informed parenting intervention. It was designed to address a wide range of mental health and behavioural problems among teens. It does this by promoting security and connectedness in parent-teen relationships. The eConnect Online program has allowed us to make the intervention much more accessible to families that have not been able to obtain adequate support during the pandemic. 

So far, we have worked collaboratively with communities to implement eConnect Online in five sites that have previously implemented in-person Connect (British Columbia and Quebec, Canada; Sweden; Italy; Australia), and we brought eConnect Online to two new pilot sites (South Africa & Mexico). So far, the results have been extremely positive! We saw that eConnect Online is as effective as in-person Connect in improving youth mental health and parent-child relationship, as well as reducing parent burden. Practitioners who ran the groups also reported that the program is a great fit for their agencies and communities!

Please stay tuned for more update on this project!