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Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters

FEATURE EVENT

Today, the Honourable Ya’ara Saks, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, announced an investment of $6 million through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS) to expand and increase the impact of the Canadian Research Initiative on Substance Matters (CRISM). This new funding includes $4 million to create a Network Coordinating Centre and $2 million to develop an Indigenous Engagement Platform that will work collaboratively across the research network.
Dr. David Hodgins at the University of Calgary will lead the CRISM Network Coordinating Centre. Dr. Hodgins and his team will establish four core platforms, including one to co-create knowledge mobilization products and activities with stakeholders and partners, and a training and capacity building platform that includes research placements and scholarships as well as mentorship opportunities for early career researchers and Indigenous scholars across all network nodes. The Network Coordinating Centre will also facilitate a trials and project support platform to facilitate clinical trials, research studies and data sharing, and a platform to create processes and tools for the production of guidelines and best practice documents.
Dr. Robert Henry at the University of Saskatchewan will lead the development of the CRISM Indigenous Engagement Platform. Using distinctions-based and community-led approaches, Dr. Henry and his team will strengthen and increase Indigenous involvement across CRISM’s regional nodes by advising the Network Coordinating Centre on Indigenous research priorities, improving Indigenous engagement at all levels, and supporting CRISM to improve Indigenous health and well-being through Indigenous-driven efforts. The platform will include five core pillars: knowledge translation and mobilization, training of Indigenous students, Indigenous research priorities designed with Indigenous community partners, improving Indigenous methodologies for CRISM, and development of an Indigenous evaluation framework.

Links to the various announcements

CRISM is happy to inform you of the following changes to its name:
- English: Canadian research initiative in substance Matters
- French : Initiative canadienne de recherche sur les impacts des substances psychoactives
The term «Misuse» in the name has been contentious for some time, with node members calling to change it. To keep the CRISM acronym and branding, «Matters» is replacing misuse as it is more accurate to the consortium’s reach and breath.

French required 2 changes, thus modifying the acronym from ICRAS to ICRIS.

Thank you for being supportive of this change.

CRISM is a national network of researchers, service providers, policy makers and people with lived experience of substance use. CRISM’s overall objective is to translate evidence-based interventions for substance use into clinical practice, community-based prevention, harm reduction, and health system changes. Our intent is to support the creation of more effective, personal, and adoptable intervention programs and services.

Substance use disorders are pressing and complex health issues. In order to be effective, interventions requires evidence-based approaches, an understanding of the biological, psychosocial and social factors and an acknowledgement of the important impact of cultural, societal, and policy contexts. Many intervention modalities exist and are known to have excellent results, yet they have not been widely implemented.

To address these translation and implementation gaps, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), through its Institute for Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Addiction (INMHA), developed the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters (CRISM) (previously known as the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse). CRISM was designed to facilitate communication and collaboration across the pillars of addiction service providers, researchers, policy-makers, patients, and people who use substances. CRISM is a network that consists of five regional teams (referred to as Nodes), located in BC, the Prairies, Ontario, Québec, and the Atlantic region.