The comorbidity of chronic health conditions and mental disorder in children can adversely impact children’s quality of life and family functioning. It also presents complex treatment challenges and increased costs to our health care system.
The primary goal of the REACH study are to assess the course (prognosis and risk) of mental comorbidity in children newly diagnosed with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, food allergy, and juvenile arthritis. This initial pilot study will address important feasibility questions concerning sampling, measurement, and data collection procedures which will be used to implement the full study.
This research will identify factors that condition risk for mental comorbidity which could elevate the well-being of children via improvements in health service delivery, particularly in the realm of family-centred care and targeted interventions for at-risk children.
This study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Related News
ARCH Lab Alumnus Publishes Paper Examining Cortisol and Mental Disorder in Children with Chronic Physical Illnesses
An ARCH lab alumnus, Emily Kornelsen, published a paper using data from the REACH study, entitled “Hair cortisol concentration and mental disorder in children with
ARCH Lab Student Publishes Paper
Shannon Reaume, a PhD student with the ARCH Lab, published a paper titled “Chronicity of mental comorbidity in children with new-onset physical illness” using data
New ARCH Lab Research
Led by Alle Butler, a reading course student supervised by Dr. Ferro, the main findings from the REACH study were published in an article entitled,
People on this Project
Principal Investigators:
Mark Ferro
Michael Boyle
Co-Investigators:
Kathy Georgiades
Andrea Gonzalaz
Ellen Lipman
Harriet MacMillan
Kathy Speechley
Ryan Van Lieshout
Staff:
Jessica Zelman
Project Funders
