UdeM October Newsletter | Infolettre d’octobre de l’UdeM
Shalini Lal
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YMHTech Lab in the Spotlight! Our scientific director, Dr. Shalini Lal, was featured in the University of Montreal’s October 2019 Newsletter! Check out the interview linked below to learn more about her journey to becoming an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Technology for Youth Mental Health Services.. #YMHTech
Les nouvelles de notre laboratoire - Au mois d’Octobre dernier, l’infolettre de l’Université de Montréal a publié un article sur notre directrice scientifique, Dre Shalini Lal. Consultez l’entrevue ci-dessous pour apprendre davantage sur son parcours professionnel en tant que professeure agrégée, titulaire de la Chaire de recherche du Canada sur l’innovation et les technologies pour les soins en santé mentale des jeunes. #SMJTechno
Shalini Lal: Collaborative research in mental health
English Translation
Affiliations:
Shalini Lal, PhD, MSc, BScOT (Reg. QC)
Canada Research Chair, Innovation and Technology for Youth Mental Health Services
Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal
Principal Scientist, Health Innovation and Assessment Hub,
University of Montreal Hospital Research Center (CRCHUM)
Associate Researcher, Douglas Mental Health University Institute
Co-Lead Investigator, ACCESS Open Minds - CIHR-SPOR Youth Mental Health Network
Director, Youth Mental Health and Technology Lab
Research Interests:
Use of new information and communication technologies as tools of engagement and intervention for youth and their families to improve access to and quality of care.
Shalini Lal, Associate Professor
For as long as she can remember, Shalini Lal has always wanted to work in the health field. "In elementary school, I already knew I wanted to help people as a healthcare professional, even though I didn't know exactly what role I would play at the time," recalls the occupational therapist and Canada Research Chair in Innovation and Technology for Youth Mental Health Services.
Volunteering at a geriatric hospital during her teenage years allowed her to have her first contact with the healthcare community and discover the different professions within the field. Dr. Lal notes, "I saw that therapists spent more time with patients than other professionals and this appealed to me." In the end, it was a brochure on a university occupational therapy program, distributed while she was in college, that convinced her to embark on this path.
"One of the questions on the brochure was "Do you like creative activities?" and that peaked my curiosity,” confides the art lover, who has long studied piano and performed in theatre, “it gave me the impression that this career offered a wide variety of possibilities, which suited my personality."
From the beginning of her undergraduate studies in occupational therapy at McGill University, Dr. Lal realized that she had a preference for mental health care; a field at the very root of the discipline. "At the beginning of the 20th century, a psychiatrist named Adolf Meyer concluded that for patients to recover, they needed to be engaged in meaningful activities and to have a certain balance in their lives." Dr. Lal mentions that she is particularly inspired by the pioneer's work.
After completing her undergraduate studies, Dr. Lal worked as an occupational therapist in the United States for a few years. During this time she explored various aspects of her profession, including working in child and youth mental health. Motivated by her field experience, the future researcher decided to pursue higher education, but this time in psychiatry.
When she was working as a practitioner, Dr. Lal began observing the so-called revolving door syndrome. "Patients are hospitalized for a mental health problem, they become stable, they return to the community and then they are back in the hospital," she says. During her master's degree, Dr. Lal focused on the use of intersectoral collaboration between various sectors of the community, to increase employment opportunities for people with mental health disorders. "My studies have always been influenced by my clinical experience." She took the same approach for her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of British Columbia; a path she began after a return to practice as a case manager and clinical program coordinator for youth with a first episode of psychosis. This experience led her to study the development of resilience among this group of young people, a segment of the population around whom her projects continue to revolve to this day. She adds, "The thing I find really inspiring about youth mental health is that you have the opportunity to change their trajectory through early intervention."
Also, during her doctoral studies she discovered what would become one of her main research interests: the use of new technologies as tools for engagement and intervention. The revelation occurred to her after meeting a homeless youth with a tablet, "It was then that I began to realize that mobile technologies were taking up a lot of space in the lives of young people. Yet when I was a case manager, we only used cell phones for emergencies.”
As a researcher, Dr. Lal further explored the subject during her postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University and found that young people are open to the idea of mental health services using technologies, for example, for texting appointment reminders or using technology for communicating with treatment providers and for peer support.