Seeking diversity in our research: CAMH Annual Report 2004

CAMH Annual Report

Dr. Michael Bagby, right, with Research analyst, Devita Singh.

Reflection is one of the keys to a person's self-improvement. The same is true of an organization, especially when it comes to a complex issue like diversity and research.

Dr. R. Michael Bagby, Director of the Clinical Research Department at CAMH and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and his research colleagues have been going through a period of organizational reflection. Over the past several months, they have been analyzing CAMH research publications to find out how well CAMH research represents issues relating to diversity.

This review is part of a three-phase research proposal conducted in collaboration with the Diversity Programs Office and the Research Division. The review also included asking key researchers at CAMH what they thought about integrating diversity into their work and what our community partners thought about how we could better address the issue of diversity.

The good news is that some aspects of diversity, such as age and gender, were consistently part of the research from 1999 to 2002. The bad news is that race, ethnicity, religion, immigrant/refugee status, language, sexual orientation and physical ability were often overlooked. As well, there were few partnerships with community organizations working on these problems, and most of this research was the production of a single research section (see profile on page 22). This review has given CAMH a template and corresponding benchmark to measure the progress being made year over year regarding diversity in our research.

"The importance of integrating some aspect of diversity into research cannot be overlooked," says Bagby. "Findings can change based on who is being asked the questions. There is a chance that some wrong conclusions could be reached if certain groups that have different levels or kinds of needs are excluded or not identified in certain types of research." For example, if a clinical trial examining the effects of psychotherapy versus anti-depressant medication only looks at effects on Canadians of European descent who were born and raised in Canada, can we safely generalize the results to include effects on those who are recent immigrants to Canada?

In the second phase, researchers conducted interviews with CAMH section heads to gauge the importance of diversity in their research. It became evident that we are integrating diversity into our research but it doesn't show because we lack the expertise and resources to use the data. More importantly, however, staff expressed an overwhelming desire to learn more about integrating diversity into their research protocols.

The third phase is underway. In this phase, community partners are being interviewed to determine important research areas around diversity and to examine potential barriers to conducting such research. This phase will also look at the best ways of ensuring community collaboration in determining community needs, establishing questions and co-ordinating information dissemination. This phase will be completed by the end of the year.

Once all the results are compiled, the Clinical Research Department will look at the results and work closely with the CAMH clinical and research program leaders to incorporate these findings into their programs. As well, we will begin to develop closer links and partnerships with diverse communities outside of the organization.

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