Healthy Families Lab Team Photo

Meet the team at the Healthy Families Lab! We are thrilled to welcome some new members this fall. Stay tuned to see more updates from our team this year!

International Congress of Behavioral Medicine

Congratulations to Makayla Freeman, who presented two posters at the 17th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine in Vancouver, BC this week.

Participant experiences of the Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) mHealth intervention

Birthing parent adverse childhood experiences and risk of atopic diseases in 5-year-old children

Government of Canada announces additional research funding to help all people in Canada sleep soundly

Congratulations to Dr. Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen for receiving funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to lead a team focused on equity and intersectionality in sleep research. As part of the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium, Dr. Tomfohr-Madsen and her team will study how people’s identities, location, and access to services affect their quality of sleep, and what factors protect and improve sleep.

For more information, read the news release here: https://www.canada.ca/en/institutes-health-research/news/2023/07/government-of-canada-announces-additional-research-funding-to-help-all-people-in-canada-sleep-soundly.html

CPA 2023 National Convention

Congratulations to all of the students and trainees who represented the Healthy Families Lab at the CPA 2023 National Convention! Several lab members presented posters including Jasleen Kaur, Katherine Silang, and James Jung

Jasleen Kaur

Katherine Silang

James Jung

Recent Publication: Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): an open-pilot and feasibility study of a digital mental health and parenting intervention for mothers of infants

Click to view the infographic.

Congratulations to Bailin Xie, Makayla Freeman, Dr. Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen, and the other co-authors on this new publication: “Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): an open-pilot and feasibility study of a digital mental health and parenting intervention for mothers of infants.”

The Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) program is a 10-week app-based intervention that provides mothers with mental health and parenting psychoeducation, a peer support forum, and weekly e-health group therapy sessions. This open-pilot trial investigated initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of the BEAM program when delivered to mothers of infants aged 6–17 months.

Read the full article here: https://pilotfeasibilitystudies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40814-023-01245-x#Sec1

Mindfulness Tips for Better Sleep

Based on the findings from our study “Trait mindfulness and sleep: Interactions between observing and nonreactivity in the association with sleep health”, here are some tips for mindfulness practice!

They include: checking in with your body, anchoring in the present and being kind to your mind!

To learn more about the study, read the paper here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20551029221149282


Recent Publication: Trait mindfulness and sleep

Congratulations to Bailin Xie, Makayla Freeman, Dr. Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen, and the other co-authors on this new publication: 'Trait mindfulness and sleep: Interactions between observing and nonreactivity in the association with sleep health.”

The findings suggest that awareness, nonreactivity, and nonjudgement are associated with better sleep health. It was also found that observing one’s experiences is more helpful for sleep health when people are less reactive to their experience but more unhelpful for sleep health when people responded more reactively.

Read the full article here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20551029221149282

Recent Publication: Assessment of Canadian perinatal mental health services from the provider perspective

Congratulations to Dr. Lianne Tomfohr-Madsen and the other co-authors on this new publication: “Assessment of Canadian perinatal mental health services from the provider perspective: Where can we improve?”

The paper highlights critical needs for provider training in evidence-based mental health screening tools and accessible services in the perinatal period.

Partners in the Pandemic Infographic

Jasleen Kaur, a honours student in the lab, presented on her project at the COVGEN Summit 2021. Learn about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of partners of pregnant individuals by reading this infographic.

Click to view the full infographic.