Duncan Pedersen Award 2018
Congratulations, Katherine Pizarro!
Katherine Pizarro聽is a doctoral candidate in the Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry at 9I制作厂免费, working under the supervision of Danielle Groleau. Before coming to 9I制作厂免费,聽Katherine聽completed her Master's Degree in International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her Bachelor's Degree in Cognitive Science at Carleton College. She聽has conducted research to inform聽the design and evaluation of public health policies and programs in a variety of international settings.聽Her research uses both qualitative and聽quantitative methods聽to understand the social and cultural aspects of health behaviors, including substance use, nutrition, and newborn care.聽Her doctoral research will take a participatory research approach to developing and evaluating a program to address the social determinants of聽mental health and wellbeing among indigenous populations in Guatemala. She is a recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Research: Promoting indigenous men鈥檚 wellbeing: Participatory evaluation research in Guatemala
Civil war, discrimination and structural violence have profoundly impacted the mental health of indigenous men in Guatemala. Men鈥檚 distress, substance use and domestic violence play a key role in propagating poor mental health across generations. However, despite a documented need for programs to address men鈥檚 psychosocial wellbeing, evidence-based and culturally appropriate interventions for indigenous men in Guatemala are systematically lacking. Moreover, the context and meaning of men鈥檚 psychosocial wellbeing are poorly understood, making it difficult to plan and evaluate potential interventions.
For her PhD research, Katherine is collaborating with Guatemala-based organization Buena Semilla and local indigenous communities to develop and evaluate participatory, community-based strategies to address men鈥檚 psychosocial wellbeing and the health of their families. She will use funds from the Duncan Pedersen award to support the聽first formative research phase of this project. She will conduct聽free listening sessions with groups of adolescent boys, adult men, elders, traditional healers and local health professionals in Santiago Atitlan, Solol谩, Guatemla聽to identify the various aspects of men鈥檚 wellbeing, manifestations of distress and social conditions that contribute to men鈥檚 psychosocial health. She will then conduct聽key informant interviews to explore local idioms of distress, constructions of men鈥檚 wellbeing and associated social conditions in greater depth. Results will be used to guide the development of holistic, culturally-grounded intervention strategies, and aid in the development a local instrument to measure the impact of community-based interventions on men鈥檚 psychosocial health and wellbeing.
