Nicola Gailits

Nicola is currently completing her Master of Science in Global Health, working under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Schwartz. She completed her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia. Since 2010, she spent a year living in both France and Argentina where she became intrigued with culture, global mental health, ethics, and globalization. 

As an outgoing Queen Elizabeth Scholar, she will be travelling to Northern India to conduct research for her thesis on community mental health of women with depression and anxiety. She will be conducting qualitative research to determine how a model for community mental health competence can be developed, in other words, how communities can facilitate their own treatment and care of mental health problems. Nicola believes that understanding these types of community models will help strengthen local mental health systems in regions where little to no access to mental health treatment is available. She looks forward to working with McMaster Health Forum to expand her knowledge of stakeholder dialogues, and learn about health systems strengthening in other regions of the globe from her fellow scholars.