School of Criminal Justice and interRAI to host conference for leaders in health and mental health care

Nipissing University’s School of Criminal Justice will be hosting the interRAI Canada Conference alongside interRAI, in Nipissing’s Fedeli Business Centre on Friday, August 11, 2023. This one-day event will be attended by approximately 40 to 45 participants including university researchers, graduate students, post-doctoral candidates and local leaders in health and mental health care.

InterRAI is a collaborative network of researchers and practitioners in over 35 countries committed to improving care for individuals who are disabled or medically complex. Their network strives to promote evidence-informed clinical practice and policy decision-making. Currently, four interRAI members work at Nipissing University: Dr. Ron Hoffman, Dr. Greg Brown, Dr. Roxana Vernescu, and Dr. Trevor Smith.

A key topic that will be discussed at this year’s conference will be a new software called the interRAI Brief Mental Health Screener (BMHS) which was developed by Dr. Ron Hoffman and Dr. George Brown of Nipissing University and funded by a $100,000 grant from Mental Health Research Canada/Ontario Centres of Excellence for Children and Youth Mental Health.

This software will be used to connect people with mental health disorders with community mental health services providers. The software allows local police to assess serious mental health disorders and connect individuals virtually to local agencies or the hospital. The results of this project will be used as a template for other initiatives nationwide. Local partners included in this project include the North Bay Regional Health Centre, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Hands, theFamilyHelpNetwork and the North Bay Police Service.

To learn more about interRAI and how they are helping to pave the way for better healthcare practices, visit https://interrai.org/.