Project PROTECH
Pandemic Rapid-response Optimization To Enhance Community-Resilience and Health (PROTECH) is a rapid response community-based action research project that aims to reduce the negative psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and builds resilience capacity in Chinese and East-Asian Communities.
As the first racialized groups hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Canadians and diasporic communities have experience increased stigma and racism, further intensifying the overall mental health, economic and social impact shared by broader Canadian communities.
PROTECH integrates three levels of programs to support the Chinese communities. Our programming is built on lessons learned from the HIV and SARS pandemics and are guided by the principles of meaningful engagement, community empowerment, and social justice. PROTECH includes:
- COVID-19 Info Hub: A multilingual resource hub for community members and frontline service providers. The virtual hub provides up-to-date information about the epidemic/preventative practices, tips on how to evaluate COVID-19 information, mental health first-aid support strategies and contextualized strategies to deal with stigma, discrimination and other related challenges. Info hub is located at https://www.projectprotech.ca.
- Pandemic Acceptance and Commitments to Empowerment Response (PACER) Training: PACER is a six-week mindfulness and social justice-based group training delivered through group video conferences and online learning modules. PACER is designed to provide participants with tools to cope with COVID-19 related demands and challenges with a focus on stigma reduction and empowerment interventions. PACER is offered to highly impacted groups such as frontline service providers and individuals/families directly impacted by COVID-19. For details on recruitment, eligibility, and sign-up, please visit https://projectprotech.ca/working-together/pacer-training/
- Systematic Pandemic Active Response Collaborative (SPARC) Model: The SPARC model aims to connect, mobilize, and align existing resources to mount multi-sector responses to combat impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The PROTECH team is working closely with community partners and collaborators to identify trending issues among Chinese Canadians and other affected communities, with the aim to mobilize leaders, volunteers and relevant stakeholders to collectively provide timely responses to urgent needs in the community.
The PROTECH team consists of clinicians, researchers, and leaders from diverse fields. As a rapid response model, PROTECH is scalable and adaptable for use across different communities in Canada and beyond, and can contribute to local, regional, national and international responses to COVID-19 and similar pandemics in the future.
This project is funded by the Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) through the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).
Find out more about PROTECH at https://projectprotech.ca/
PROTECH Investigators
Nominated Principal Investigator: Prof. Josephine Pui-Hing Wong
Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Kenneth P. Fung, Dr. Alan Li, Dr. Mandana Vahabi
Co-Investigators: Dr. Jenny J.W. Liu, Dr. Xuan (Nina) Ning, Dr. Maurice Poon, Andy Mok