Menu
Menu
Please check back on our website in December for symposium content, including presentations and key highlights.
On November 4th, we welcomed esteemed CRISM Atlantic members from all Atlantic Canadian provinces to address the ways in which we are informing research and practice in substance use. Elder Chris Brooks opened the 2024 Atlantic Symposium with drums and rattles graciously supplied by the Dalhousie Indigenous Student Centre. We want to sincerely thank him for his continued involvement and support of our work, and the Dalhousie Indigenous Student Centre for their kindness.
November 5th highlighted the scope of CRISM Atlantic’s impact (please scroll below for our program and speakers). Thank you to our speakers and plenary for their time and efforts in carrying research work in the Atlantic region forward and making time to share the knowledge created.
The Chill Space would not have been possible without the support of the Chill Space team made up of amazing individuals with lived and living experience. A sincere thank you to Mainline, Direction 180, the Ally Centre of Cape Breton, the National Overdose Response Service (NORS), and PEERS Alliance for helping support the Chill Space.
The 2024 Symposium was closed by Sulia’n Johnson. Thank you, Sulia’n, for sharing your songs and closing us off in a good way.
Elder Chris Brooks is from Saint Mary’s First Nation. He is a traditional Lodge Keeper, Sacred Pipe Carrier and Knowledge keeper. Elder Chris has a Bachelor of Criminology from Saint Thomas University and is currently working on his “Child and Youth Care Addictions Support Worker” from Eastern College in Fredericton. As well, he is on the Board of Directors for “Turning Leaf”, a John Howard affiliate, as well as, on the Board of Directors for “Habitat for Humanity” for SMFN. Elder Chris has been a youth mentor for “Mawiw” for the past five years and started up the Legal Advice Clinic at SMFN. He is also the General Service Rep for AA. Elder Chris is a member of the CRISM Atlantic Indigenous Advisory Council. Elder Chris is now retired from 23 years of service with Correctional Service Canada.
Dr. Stewart is the Principal Investigator of the CRISM Atlantic Node. She holds a CIHR Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Addictions and Mental Health at Dalhousie University, and is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and Community Health and Epidemiology. Dr. Stewart is recognized for her research on psychosocial and motivational factors contributing to emotional disorders, addictive disorders, and their co-occurrence. She has developed/evaluated novel interventions for these disorders including substance use prevention and treatment programs for youth and adults. She is currently leading a cross national trial of a personality-targeted intervention for reducing substance harms and improving mental health in emerging adult university students, and a feasibility study of a personality-targeted intervention for reducing risky polysubstance use among clients receiving opioid agonist therapy in Atlantic Canada.
Robert Henry, Ph.D., is Métis from Prince Albert, SK and an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Department of Indigenous Studies. He is the Scientific Director of the SK-NEIHR, holds a Canada Research Chair Tier II – Indigenous Justice and Wellbeing and is the Principal Investigator for the Indigenous Engagement Platform-CIHR . Robert’s research areas include Indigenous street gangs and gang theories, Indigenous masculinities, Indigenous and critical research methodologies, youth mental health, and visual research methods. He has published two photovoice projects Brighter Days Ahead (2013) and Indigenous Women and Street Gangs: Survivance Narratives (2021) with Indigenous men and women involved in street gangs. Robert has also published in the areas of Indigenous masculinity, Indigenous health, youth subcultures, Indigenous methodologies and ethics, and Indigenous criminal justice.
Dr. Sanja Stanojevic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. Dr. Stanojevic is a respiratory epidemiologist with expertise in methodologies to characterize the normal growth and development of the lungs.
Dr. Caroline Brunelle received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from McGill University and is currently a Professor of Psychology at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John Campus. Her research focuses on transdiagnostic factors in mental health and addiction as well as evaluation of substance use interventions.
Dr. Alizadeh, BScOT, MScOT, PhD, holds a PhD in Health from Dalhousie University’s School of Occupational Therapy. With three years of clinical and ten years of research experience, she specializes in developing and evaluating health interventions. She has led a trial on fatigue management in Parkinson’s Disease and is involved in health equity and neurological rehabilitation research. Currently, she leads the OpiVenture project as a postdoctoral fellow.
Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Community-Driven Knowledge Mobilization and Pathways to Wellness; Associate Professor in Department of Health Sciences, Wilfrid Laurier University, Melody is of Japanese and Swiss-German Mennonite descent and upbringing. The majority of her research is community-initiated and co-led in areas related to First Nations community health and wellness; interdisciplinary and applied health research; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) related research; and community-partnered knowledge mobilization. Melody has worked with Annie for 10+ years on different projects.
Dr. Stephen Ellenbogen (PhD in Social Work, McGill University) is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, in St. John’s, Canada. He has published on a wide range of topics, including harm reduction, child maltreatment, social work education, adolescence issues, program evaluation, and gambling. With a clinical career that spans two decades, he has occupied social work, outreach, counsellor, and consultancy roles in public sector and community settings.
Nat Kaminski is a queer non binary substance user and mother of one. Nat currently manages the harm reduction outreach and peer programs at MOYO Health and Community Services an Aids Service organization in Peel Region ( Brampton, Ont.) and is a research assistant at University of Toronto, Dal Lana School of Public Health. Nat sat on the board of Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs (CAPUD) 2019-2023 and served as founding President of Ontario Network of People Who Use Drugs (ONPUD) 2020-2024.
Katie Upham, BSc (she/her), is a neurodivergent settler living in Mi’kma’ki. She brings a plethora of lived experiences to any project she is involved in including injection drug use, houselessness and substance use treatment like safer opioid supply and opioid agonist therapy.
Katie has worked with a number of harm reduction and community-based organizations. She is currently self-employed as a lived experience consultant and harm reduction educator. Most notably, she is regularly engaged in projects with research organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation. Furthermore, she represents Atlantic Canada on the Board of Directors of Moms Stop The Harm.
Tommy Brothers is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Dalhousie University, and a General Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine physician at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, in Halifax. His clinical and research work focuses on improving health services for people with substance use disorders, especially through the integration of addiction medicine and harm reduction with general medical care. He helped to develop and implement Atlantic Canada’s first overdose prevention site, and Nova Scotia’s first hospital-based addiction medicine consult service, both in Halifax. He is co-author of several national guidelines for substance use care that were organized and funded through CRISM, including for management of opioid use disorder; take-home naloxone programs; and supervised consumption sites.
Angele DesRoches joined the P.E.E.R.S. Alliance team in 2015 when the organization was still known as AIDS PEI. Angele completed her B.A. (Hons.) degree at the University of Prince Edward Island where she became interested in the relationship between social science and social justice. She later earned her Master’s Degree in Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University studying health promotion and program development with marginalized communities. While completing her education, Angele worked with the Social Inclusion and Health Equity research group, the Sexual Health, and HIV research group, and supported participatory action research focused on access to reproductive healthcare. Since joining P.E.E.R.S. Alliance, Angele has worked to develop and deliver programming focused on community engagement, peer support, community-based education, and health promotion with people who consume (currently) criminalized substances. Angele is thrilled to be working on issues related to harm reduction and sexual health in Epekwitk, her home Province.
Morty struggled with substance use and homelessness in his teens living in New Brunswick. At 18 he hitchhiked to Halifax where he stayed in shelters and was hospitalized for liver and heart complications for several months.
Today Morty uses his lived experience daily in his role with Mainline Needle Exchange providing peer support and outreach, leading education workshops, and being involved in working groups making changes in the hospitals and within other work he is involved with.
Duncan Webster began his undergraduate studies at Mount Allison University where he received his BSc in chemistry, biology and physics and BA (honours) in philosophy and religion before completing a Masters in Philosophy at UNB. He went on to obtain his MD at Dalhousie University and subsequently completed his Internal Medicine residency training and Infectious Diseases fellowship at the University of Alberta. Following this, he returned to the Maritimes where he completed further fellowship training in Medical Microbiology at Dalhousie University. He has worked as an Infectious Diseases consultant and Medical Microbiologist in his hometown of Saint John since 2007.
Nicole Peters-Vuozzo is a registered nurse with 25 years’ experience. Nicole received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Prince Edward Island and Master of Nursing Degree from Dalhousie University. She has dedicated the majority of her nursing career to working various roles in Mental Health and Addictions in PEI. Nicole is currently the Research Coordinator for Health PEI, Mental Health and Addictions.
crismatlantic@gmail.com
Dalhousie University
1355 Oxford St., P.O. Box 15000
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2