SFU researcher to study impacts of dual public health emergencies on youth

published on March 16, 2021 in Simon Fraser University News

Simon Fraser University public policy researcher Kora DeBeck has received federal funding to study the combined impact of the opioid overdose crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic on Vancouver youth who use drugs.

The funding was confirmed last week by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which announced $25.2 million in funding for 52 research products to further our understanding of COVID-19.

DeBeck, who is also a research scientist with the BC Centre of Substance Use at Providence Health Care, is the principal investigator for the At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS), a longitudinal cohort study of street-involved youth who use drugs in Vancouver aiming to explore various factors that influence their well-being. The cohort began in 2005 and is funded by the CIHR and the U.S. National Institutes for Health Research…