Drs. Geoff Bardwell and Zahid Butt, both researchers in Waterloo's School of Public Health Sciences, have received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in the latest competition.
Bardwell's project, "Community health impacts of policing behaviour in response to illegal drug use: A mixed method study examining changes in police policy and practices in smaller urban and rural communities," received more than $500,000 over four years in the fall 2024 Project Grants competition, which is in addition to another $100,000 he received last year as bridge funding from the CIHR.
"Most research on drug use occurs in large urban settings, and this funding is important to understand the realities in smaller urban and rural settings across Waterloo Region in order to inform policy and drug strategies both locally and in other jurisdictions of similar sizes," Bardwell said.
"Drug use is increasingly being recognized as a health rather than a criminal issue. There are known negative health outcomes associated with drug criminalization, and in the last few years, the Waterloo Region Police Service has deprioritized drug possession and reduced its possession charges by 50 per cent."
His mixed methods study seeks to examine the effects of these changes to policing practice as they related to individual and community health and measure variations in drug-related police encounters across demographic and geographic factors between 2016 to 2026.
Other researchers on this grant include Drs. Chris Perlman and Jane Law from Waterloo and Dr. Carol Strike from the University of Toronto. This project is also a collaboration with several community partners, including Waterloo Region Police Service, Region of Waterloo Public Health and Paramedic Services, Waterloo Region Integrated Drug Strategy, Waterloo Region Drug Action Team, Drug Strategy Network of Ontario and Pivot Legal Society.
Zahid Butt's project, "Long COVID in Bangladesh: Developing Strategies for Identifying and Managing Post-COVID Syndrome in LMICs and Low Resource Health Systems," received $100,000 over one year in the competition.
"Current research on long COVID, including definitions, has come from high-income countries," Butt said. "However, due to differences in socioeconomic conditions and disease profiles, what we know about it in these countries may not be fully applicable to low- and middle-income countries."
This study will include all COVID-19-tested individuals in a sub-district of Bangladesh, identified through a globally recognized demographic and health surveillance system to examine and understand long COVID in this area.
It will also examine health as well as economic impacts, such as livelihood disruption, in individuals who have long COVID. The results will help with early management of the syndrome and reduce the long-term impact of the pandemic. This project is expected to establish Canadian research partnerships for improved global health emergency response and build Canadian expertise in preparedness and response research.
Other researchers on this grant include Drs. Shannon Majowicz, Craig Janes and Peter Hall from the University of Waterloo and Md Atique Iqbal Chowdhury, Mohammad Zahid Hossain, Farzana Afroze, Asraful Alam, Shams El Arifeen, Mohammod Jobayer Chisti, Kazi Munisul Islam and Afruna Rahman from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh.
