Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Supports in Marginalized Populations

Join us at our Mental Health Month Panel, which will feature a conversation about the disparities that exist in mental health outcomes and resources in marginalized communities. Panelists will include Dr. Oyedeji Ayonrinde, Dr. Branka Agic, Dr. Jeavana Sritharan, and Michael Adia. You will have the opportunity to engage with our esteemed panelists about their experiences, accomplishments, and challenges!

Michael Adia: Michael is a registered social worker with extensive experience providing mental health and case management support to people living with HIV and LGBTQI2S communities. He has developed, coordinated and implemented outreach programs for racialized and gender expansive individuals through his work at Asian Community AIDS Services. Michael has also led a team of social workers and case managers providing community mental health support to racialized youth with concurrent disorders at Across Boundaries. He is currently the HIV, LGBTQI2S social worker at St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team. He was awarded the Interprofessional Practice Based Research at St. Michael’s Hospital with his project that aims to identify the unique mental health needs of transgender and gender non-conforming clients during COVID19 pandemic.

Dr. Jeavana Sritharan: Dr. Jeavana Sritharan is currently a lecturer at Ontario Tech University and a health researcher, with a background in cancer epidemiology, occupational health and mental health. Her research experience involves cancer health disparities, mental health awareness in the Tamil population, and the investigation of mental health issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously completed her doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Science, and Cancer Care Ontario.

Dr. Branka Agic: Dr. Branka Agic is the Director of Knowledge Exchange with the Provincial System Support Program and an Independent Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of the Master of Science in Community Health (MScHS) in Addiction and Mental Health Program at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She has extensive experience in counselling, research and service development with immigrants and refugees. Her primary research interest is in the area of mental health and substance use among immigrants, refugees, ethnocultural and racialized groups with a focus on social determinants of health and access to services.

Dr. Oyedeji Ayonrinde: Dr. Oyedeji Ayonrinde is a researcher, educator and clinician, who has been appointed as the Chair of the Commission on Black Medical Students at Queen’s University. He is the Clinical Director for Community Mental Programs with Providence Care and an Associate Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Queen’s University. His clinical experience spans addiction and substance misuse psychiatry, emergency and intensive care psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, psychosexual medicine and cross-cultural mental health. He has published in areas of culture and youth mental health, cannabis, racial trauma and the history of medicine.

Attending this event will earn you a ticket to the raffle conducted in early April, where you can win a $40 gift basket! This event was made possible by the Graduate and Life Sciences Education Graduate Student Wellness Grant from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.