Dr. Kirsten Marchand is an emerging health services research leader embedded at Foundry Research. Her multi-methods research program is examining person- and community-centred services, systems and policies for substance use prevention, early intervention, harm reduction and treatment to ensure that youth receive the highest quality of substance use services.
“When research is siloed from communities and healthcare systems, we know that it can take close to 20 years for interventions to move from research to routine clinical care. At a time when our healthcare system is facing really complex mental health and substance use-related challenges like the ongoing drug toxicity crisis, we have an ethical and scientific imperative to develop and monitor innovative evidence-based interventions that can respond to this complexity, as quickly as possible.” – Dr. Kirsten Marchand, Post-doctoral Fellow at Foundry
Over the last decade, Kirsten has been developing her research program through collaboration with youth, families/caregivers, communities, service providers, and other partners. Her commitment to engagement and collaboration began as the research evaluations coordinator for the landmark injectable opioid agonist treatment randomized controlled trial (called SALOME) conducted at Providence Health Care’s Crosstown Clinic. This work continued through her doctoral research at the University of British Columbia and has now grown to focus on the needs of youth and their families/caregivers and service providers during a post-doctoral fellowship jointly appointed at Foundry, the University of British Columbia and the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes.
“Dr. Marchand is a core part of Foundry’s learning health system, bridging the gap between research and practical application of knowledge needed to deliver effective care to youth and families across British Columbia. Dr. Marchand is also a strong advocate for evidence-based substance use policy, designing studies that directly address policy questions and have clear implications for British Columbia policy to increase the likelihood of adoption. Most importantly, Dr. Marchand is adaptable and flexible to the changing circumstances and needs of youth and families in our province. By being adaptable, this ensures that our research remains relevant and responsive.” – Dr. Skye Barbic, Head Scientist at Foundry
Kirsten’s research has had significant impacts in understanding patient-reported outcomes and experiences while receiving substance use support and services, and how to evolve these supports and service to be patient-centred. As stated by Foundry Co-Executive Director Dr. Steve Mathias, “Dr. Kirsten Marchand works to fundamentally tilt the playing field in favour of young people and their families by working tirelessly to better understand their experiences, their needs and their fears when it comes to substance use.”
Examples of this work include the Improving Treatment Together Project, where Kirsten engaged youth and families/caregivers with lived/living experience and decision makers in study design, analysis and interpretation of key findings. Building on this study, her current work includes co-developing a youth-centred opioid agonist treatment model of care and big data analyses of youth-centred outcomes of opioid agonist treatment. This research is filling key gaps in our understanding of what works best for youth who use substances and their communities.
“Throughout my post-doctoral research at Foundry, there have been innumerable opportunities to develop and strengthen my relationships with youth, families/caregivers, service providers and decision makers. These relationships are immensely valuable – it means that my research is asking the right research questions, at the right time and to the right people. It also means that the results of my research are being shared back with the people and communities who can most directly benefit from this new knowledge. Ultimately, this improves the integrity, quality and dissemination of my research so that it has a meaningful and timely impact on reducing the significant harms of substance use among youth.” – Dr. Kirsten Marchand, Post-doctoral Fellow at Foundry
Find out more about Foundry.