Introduction

From surge to steady: A few new resources and what to expect this Fall

From surge to steady: A few new resources and what to expect this Fall

If you’ve checked in on what the KDE Hub has been up to over the past few months, the phrase ‘summer surge’ may be familiar. It referred to a suite of new Hub-developed tools – 10 of them – all aiming to fill gaps and address interests of project teams working in mental health promotion. You’re a diverse bunch!

This Fall you can expect a steady flow and pace with Hub supports. Still guided by interests and gaps known to us, we’ll continue to add select new annotated resources. Four are described below. Another focus will be on preparations for the KDE Hub’s 2nd Annual Symposium to be held virtually February 16-18, 2022. The event will be open and free of charge. Throughout the Fall you can expect a ‘continuous drip’ of information, communications, and opportunities for shaping the event. The drips will appear in many places – blogs, Hub Updates, targeted emails – with all of them on a designated webpage for the KDE Hub 2nd Annual Symposium. Bookmark it now and please drop in throughout the Fall.

In the meantime, consider scrolling through the Resource section on the Hub website. Based on your current and planned activities over the next few months, you may want to flag any resources that may be useful to you, including the four new additions below.

 

Mental Health Promotion Context (2 NEW ADDITIONS)

The Canadian Public Health Association’s (CPHA) position statement (March 2021) for the improvement of mental wellness of Canadians: A public health approach to population mental wellness.

  • In this position statement, the CPHA recommends actions in four areas (national strategy, policy and programs, emergency response, research, surveillance and evaluation) and provides contextual information about mental health promotion in Canada.

Dr. Margaret Barry’s keynote presentation at the 2021 KDE Hub Annual Symposium, Child and youth mental health promotion in an international context.

  • In this 40-minute video, Dr. Barry provides an international perspective on the evidence for upstream approaches to mental health promotion, including what constitutes positive mental health and why underlying determinants of mental health matter. Presentation slides and additional resources are also available.

 

Planning for scale up (2 NEW ADDITIONS)

A paper published in June 2021 entitled Adapting interventions to new contexts—the ADAPT guidance.

  • This paper offers evidence- and consensus-informed guidance for adapting and transferring interventions to new contexts and may be useful to those considering or undergoing project adaptations (e.g., as part of scaling up or in response to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Mark Cabaj’s presentation from the 2021 KDE Hub’s Annual Symposium entitled A Context-Sensitive Approach to Sustaining and Scaling Up Social Innovations.

  • This video explores how to create conditions for success by taking short-term actions in the context of long-term plans. It also addresses why context-sensitive scaling requires ‘relentless and systematic experimentation’, types of possible scaling, and conditions for successful scaling.