A team of dedicated Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care researchers and clinicians has been awarded $2.3 million through the Ontario government’s Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. The funds will go toward launching a pioneering initiative: the Mental Health Anti-Violence Hub for Empowerment, Advocacy, Resilience and Trauma Support (MHAV-HEARTS).
This project responds to urgent and long-standing gaps in mental health support for individuals impacted by gender-based violence (GBV), with a focus on its most common form — intimate partner violence. Women facing GBV are at significantly higher risk for mental illness, while ethnocultural communities often encounter additional barriers to care. Mental health issues among perpetrators are also linked to higher risks of reoffending. Unfortunately, community programs often lack adequate mental health support, and hospital-based mental health care rarely integrates GBV support. The result is fragmented care and missed opportunities for recovery and prevention.
“Mental health hospitals are not well equipped to address the complex needs of people who have experienced gender-based violence,” said Dr. N. Zoe Hilton, Research Chair in Forensic Mental Health. “Some routine practices in inpatient care can be triggering and retraumatizing for survivors, and the effects can be devastating.”
MHAV-HEARTS aims to change that. The Waypoint team is partnering with key agencies in Central Ontario and across the province to establish Canada’s first GBV-focused mental health hub, an online service bridging the gap between community and hospital services.
Over the next two years, MHAV-HEARTS will lead a series of impactful projects shaped by input from practitioners, individuals with lived experience of GBV, and other stakeholders. Guided by a Community Advisory Board, initiatives will include a public education campaign, community engagement events, development of a service referral map, and creation of a Lived Experience Advocacy Partnership (LEAP) program and training modules for advocates.
“The LEAP program will offer mental health and research training to people who have survived intimate partner violence and other forms of GBV,” explained Research Scientist Dr. Elnaz Moghimi. “The program will support people with lived experience to work together with researchers, clinicians and community partners to network and collectively develop strategies to better respond to the mental health needs of survivors.”
Other initiatives will include updates to the ODARA 101 training for risk assessment, specialized GBV training for Waypoint clinicians, and integration of GBV-focused content into the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy program.
Last August, the province announced $98 million in funding from 2024-25 to 2026-27 for 85 community-based projects focused on building safer communities, stopping gender-based violence before it happens, and helping survivors recover and rebuild their lives. A public call for proposals resulted in the selection of projects designed to address the needs of local communities in four key areas: education and awareness, early intervention and prevention, community planning and service integration, and economic security and financial independence.
In addition to Dr. Hilton and Dr. Moghimi, the MHAV-HEARTS team at Waypoint is comprised of Research Psychometrist Elke Ham, Director of Access and Flow Jaime Charlebois, Clinical Educator Melissa Morris, Central Intake Navigator Rhoda Joseph Audu, and Clinical Consultant and Training Specialist Dr. Tejas Srinivas.