BIG News for the WHRC

In 2022 Dr. Liisa Galea was appointed the inaugural Treliving Chair in Women’s Mental Health at CAMH. Through this new role, Dr. Galea provides leadership to womenmind^TM and shapes groundbreaking research discoveries that will impact, improve, and influence better mental health outcomes in girls and women. With overlapping goals and leadership between the WHRC and womenmind, a new relationship was paramount. When we became ineligible to receive funds from the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC) program in 2023, which historically sustained our organization’s operations, we sought new partnerships that aligned with our mission, values and operational needs. With womenmind’s focus on building the capacity of women in science and closing the gender gap in women’s mental health, coupled with CAMH being the largest mental health and addictions hospital in Canada that has an established reputation as a leading teaching hospital and research centre, we knew CAMH would be the perfect fit.

The GCRC program was designed to provide seed funding to groups (called Clusters) that fostered multidisciplinary research. A core goal of this program was to provide an environment where Cluster’s could grow under UBC’s umbrella and eventually become established organizations on their own. In 2023, it was decided that GCRC-funded Clusters would no longer be eligible to receive funding beyond 3 years to encourage them to seek financial sustainability on their own and separate from UBC. The WHRC reached its maximum number of funding years in 2023.

Our mandate and values remain the same. The WHRC will maintain its focus on women’s health and strive to foster new multidisciplinary research. We will also continue to mobilize our network of over 570 members across the world, who represent 145 institutions and organizations, to foster global impact. Furthermore, the WHRC’s initiatives—such as the Women’s Health Blog, Women’s Health Seminar Series, Trainee Research Presentations, Women’s Health Interrupted podcast etc...—will remain our programming. Our alliance with CAMH will enable us to connect with a new group of researchers, pursue new partnerships with CAMH-initiatives such as womenmind, and access valuable supports (e.g. fundraising, communications) that will collectively expand our impact and reach. This alliance will not impact our vision, mission, initiatives or strategic priorities. 

The WHRC boasts a global membership exceeding 570 individuals, with representation from trainees who form a substantial part of our community. We also have a robust suite of initiatives related to knowledge translation, capacity building and research facilitation. Allying with the WHRC offers CAMH the opportunity to strengthen their reach globally, connect with young professionals and leverage our event planning and knowledge translation expertise. Given the overlapping mandates and leadership between the WHRC and womenmind, it’s also strategic for CAMH to ally with the WHRC to facilitate deeper collaboration that accelerates progress. 

We’re dedicated to fostering relationships across institutions globally. Our alliance with CAMH doesn’t change that. Whether you’re located within Canada or beyond you’re welcome to become a member or maintain your membership within the WHRC. Our members currently represent 29 countries worldwide, so your location is not a barrier to membership.

Absolutely. We believe multidisciplinary collaboration is required to achieve sex and gender-based health equity. It is critical to engage people that have expertise in all domains that impact women’s health—be it sociological, economic, biomedical, clinical, engineering, the arts, and more. Our work will still reflect this multidisciplinary approach to women’s health. 

CAMH initiatives that align with the WHRC’s vision and mission will be shared via social media and our monthly newsletter. In the future, you’ll see us partnering with CAMH initiatives, like womenmind, on events and other projects that strategically advance both our organization’s goals. Furthermore, the WHRC’s operations will be moving from the UBC to CAMH between 2024-2026.

womenmind is a CAMH initiative. It is a community of philanthropists, thought leaders and scientists committed to closing the gender gap in mental health. Together they tackle gender disparities in science to put the unique needs and experiences of women at the forefront of mental health research. Inspired and empowered by the work of CAMH, members of the womenmind community connect with and learn from each other while driving change for women’s mental health and women in science. womenmind programming includes hosting conferences and seminars, organizing a mentorship program and distributing funding for CAMH scientists.

womenmind will be hosting their first conference in April, 2024 entitled Advancing Research on Women’s Mental Health, which will explore breakthrough science and research opportunities in women’s mental health across the lifespan as well as the need to unite in advocacy to advance this field of research. The WHRC is a member of their conference planning committee, and we encourage you to attend! Read more and register. 

You can make a one-time or monthly donation to the WHRC, or contact our Director of Operations (womenshealth.res@ubc.ca) to discuss major gift options. This will help us build the capacity of young women’s health professionals, catalyze women’s health research and advocate to change policies and practices that impede women’s health research through this alliance. To learn more about womenmind, or to become a womenmind member, please contact Múthoní Karíukí. 

Information about our work, and our partners, will be shared through our monthly newsletter and social media accounts (X, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube).