Skip to main content Skip to navigation
School of Public Health

Select Presentations

Lisbon Addictions European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies 2024 (October 23-25). E-Poster Presentation: Building Capacity for Social Return on Investment Analysis of Supervised Consumption Services in Saskatoon SK, Canada

Prairie Political Science Association Conference 2024 (September 20-22). Oral Presentation: The Ripple Effect - Highlighting the Impacts of Provincial Policy Decisions on Harm Reduction Service Delivery in Saskatchewan

International Overdose Awareness Day 2023 (August 31). Invited Keynote: We all have a role to play – community responses to the drug poisoning crisis.

College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Career Week Speaker Series 2023 (March 24). Invited Speaker: Community Engaged Scholarship Panel Discussion

Lisbon Addictions European Conference on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies 2022 (November 23-25). Oral Presentation: Perspectives Pathways and Priorities of People with Lived and Living Experience of Substance Use: Informing Policies (P5 Project YXE).
10th Annual Global Health Conference: Substance Use and Harm Reduction University of Saskatchewan. January 15, 2022. Invited Keynote: “Belonging is Harm Reduction: Innovative KTE partnerships for community building, policy advocacy, and resource awareness with P5 Project YXE and Hard Knox Talks”  In collaboration with Mr. Daniel Hearn & Ms. Maggie Coupland. 

 

Division of Social Accountability, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. June 5, 2020. Invited Presentation:“COVID-19 and Harm Reduction” (Webinar) Presented in collaboration with Kayla DeMong, Executive Director Prairie Harm Reduction.

 

Graduate Students Association Conference, University of Saskatchewan. February 13, 2020. Invited Keynote: “How community-based research can mobilize advocacy and policy change to reduce the harms of problematic substance use”

 

Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Issues of Substance 2019 (November 25-27) Panel Presentation: “Academia in Action: How Research led to Renewed Community Advocacy Efforts for Safe Consumption Sites in Saskatoon Saskatchewan” Co-Presented with Maryellen Gibson MPH, Harm Reduction Programs Specialist.

 

 Stimulus: Drugs Policy and Practice in Canada 2018 (October 3-5) Workshop Presentation: “Realizing the potential of lived experience: Knowledge sharing and curricular change” Co-presented with Brandi Abele, Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs.

 

HR17: Harm Reduction International 2017 (May 14-17). Poster Presentation: “Strengthening inclusion and advocacy: the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM)

 

Project Anywhere: Art at the Outermost Limits of Location-Specificity 2014 (November 14 & 15). Invited presentation: “Channel Surf: Ethical Gestures and Conditions of Possibility for Research-Creation”  Co-presented

with Dr. Sean Smith & Department of Biological Flow.

Research Areas

substance use, harm reduction, decriminalization, research-creation methods, intercultural communications, philosophies of technology, gender and health.

Current Research

My research contributions are focused on advancing harm reduction and evidence-based substance use policy, with emphasis on amplifying voices of people with lived and living experience. In practice this means people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) of harmful substance use are active partners throughout my research program, contributing to research question development, study design, implementation, reporting, and knowledge translation. Additionally, building and sustaining partnerships with municipal leaders, health care decisionmakers, justice system leaders, community-based organizations, and frontline service providers is essential to my research program. As a white-settler ally and accomplice, I also work closely with Indigenous knowledge keepers, researchers, and community advocates across multiple projects. My aim is to provide research evidence to promote policy change that improves health outcomes for people who use substances while drawing on my background in communications to mobilize knowledge through education and facilitate systems change across health sciences and the wider community. 

Current Courses

PUBH 847 'Studies in Addictions'

Recent Grants and Awards

Principal Investigator

2024
Align Grant, Call #2 - $10,000
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Project Title: Developing Municipal Capacity to Reduce Substance Use Harms in Saskatchewan. Grant timeline: August 2024 – August 2026 

2023
 2023-24 Mobilize Grant, Call #1 - $10,000
Conscientious Conversations: A Community-Based Knowledge Mobilization Effort for Service Providers Offering Harm Reduction Supports in the City of Regina

2023
2022-23 Solutions Impact Grant - $150,000 Building Capacity to Reduce Substance Use Harms: Researching Effective Evaluation Standards for the Supervised Consumption Site in Saskatoon SK

2022
Stakeholder and Patient Engagement Application Development Award - $3,000
Saskatchewan Centre for Patient Oriented Research, Learning Health Systems (LHS) Expression of Interest. (*Accepted for full application, due September 15 2022).
Project Title: Reducing the harms of health data gaps: Pilot for substance use data synthesis. 
Grant timeline: May 2022 – September 2022 

2020
Node Development Fund - $15,000 
Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM) Prairie Node 
Project Title: Substance Use Research Group for Engagement (SURGE) Student Training Module.  
Grant timeline: August 2020 – December 2020 

2020
SPROUT Grant Competition - $180,000 
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation & SK Centre for Patient Oriented Research  
Project Title: Perspectives Priorities and Pathways of people with lived and living experience of substance use: Informing policies.www.p5projectyxe.ca 
Grant timeline: March 2020 – February 2023     

 Co-Investigator: 

2024
Canadian Institutes of Health Research - $100,000, In collaboration with PIs  Dr. Carol Strike & Dr. Adrian Guta \Team Grant: HIV/AIDS and STBBI Community-Based Research - LOI Project Title: Community, capacity building and change for equity (3C for E): Developing a pan-Canadian HIV, STBBI, substance use and harm reduction community-based research network Grant timeline: LOI Funding Stage 2024-2025, Full grant submission due: September 2025  

2024
Canadian Institutes of Health Research - $500,000, In collaboration with PI Dr. Robert Henry
Operating Grant Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters Phase II: Indigenous Engagement Platform
Project Title: Moving Beyond Tokenism
Grant timeline: March 2024 – March 2029

2022
Research Connections Grant – $4,200, In collaboration with PI, Dr. K. Alphonsus 
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation 
Project Title: Spreading awareness on prescription drug misuse among older adults in Saskatchewan 
Grant timeline: March 2022 – March 2023 

2022
Solutions Impact Grant - $150,000, In collaboration with PI, Dr. C. Plante
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation 
Project Title: Emergency Department Visits for Substance Addiction and Their Consequences: A Saskatchewan Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study. 
Grant timeline: March 2022 – February 2024             

2022   
Innovation Grant - $50,000, In collaboration with PI, Dr. S. Tupper
Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation & SK Centre for Patient Oriented Research  
Project title: Solutions-focused storytelling to promote people-centered care: challenging stigma in chronic pain and substance use through graphic medicine. 
Grant timeline: March 2022 - February 2023 

2020
Node Development Fund - $15,000, In collaboration with PI, Dr. K. Alphonsus 
Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM) Prairie Node 
Project Title: Sociodemographic factors associated with prescription drug misuse among older adults in Saskatchewan.  
Grant timeline: October 2020 – October 2021 

Select Publications

Marouzi, A., Plante, C., Fornssler, B. (2024). Creating an 11-year longitudinal substance use harm cohort from linked health and census data to analyse social drivers of health.International journal of population data science, 9(1), 2412. https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v9i1.2412

Alphonsus, K., Ahmed, M. D., Scheck, H., & Fornssler, B. (2024). Evaluation of an infographic: prescription drug misuse among older adults in Saskatchewan. Journal of Substance Use, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/14659891.2024.2378753.

Coupland, M., Gibson, M., Fornssler, B. (2023). Technical report for stakeholders – Perspectives, pathways, and priorities of people with lived and living experience of substance use: Informing Policies. Available online: https://p5projectyxe.ca/project-outcomes/

Hanson, L., Fornssler, B. (2022). Decriminalization in the City of Saskatoon: Moving forward from evidence and lessons learned. Report prepared for the Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners & City of Saskatoon. 40p Available online: https://p5projectyxe.ca/project-resources/

 

Fornssler, B & P5 Project Team. (2021). A Guide to Hope and Healing: Substance Use Services in Saskatchewan.An environmental scan of harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services in Saskatchewan. Available online:https://p5projectyxe.ca/project-resources/

 

Fornssler, B., Hall, L., Dell, C., Mushquash, C., Duncan, R., Butt, P., Hopkins, C., Poole, N., Menzies, P., Rowan, M., Dell, D., Martin, M., Mykota, D., & Fiedeldey-Van Dijk, C. (2018). Travelling the Möbius Strip: The Influence of Two-Eyed Seeing in the Development of Indigenous Research Accomplices. In R. Henry, A. LaVallee, N. Van Syvendale, & R.A. Innes (Eds.), Global Indigenous Health: Reconciling the past, engaging the present, animating the future. University of Arizona Press: Tucson

 

McKenzie, H., Dell, C.A., Fornssler, B. (2016). Understanding addictions among Indigenous people through social determinants of health frameworks and strength-based approaches: A review of the research literature from 2013 to 2016. Current Addiction Reports (pp. 1-9) doi:10.1007/s40429-016-0116-9

 

Fornssler, B., Hopkins, C., Dell, C.A., (2015) Sharing Culture, Promoting Strength: The Native Wellness Assessment™ AFN Mental Wellness Bulletin Fall. Available online: http://health.afn.ca/en/highlights/general/afn-mental-wellness-bulletin-fall-2015 

 

Hall, L., Dell, C.A., Fornssler, B., Hopkins, C., Mushquash, C., Rowan, M.  (2015).  Research as Cultural Renewal: Applying Two-Eyed Seeing in a Research Project about Cultural Interventions in First Nations Addictions Treatment. International Indigenous Policy Journal 6 (2). DOI: 10.18584/iipj.2015.6.2.4
Available from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol6/iss2/4

 

Fornssler, B., McKenzie, H., Dell, C.A. Laliberte, L., Hopkins, C. (2013). “I got to know them in a new way”: Rela(y/t)ing rhizomes and community-based knowledge (brokers') transformation of Western and Indigenous knowledge. Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies doi 10.1177/1532708613516428 Available online:http://csc.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/27/1532708613516428

 

Vannini, A. & Fornssler, B. (2011). Girl, Interrupted: Interpreting Semenya’s Body, Gender Verification Testing, and Public Discourse. Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies 11(3), 243-257. doi: 10.1177/1532708611409536

 

Fornssler, B. (2011). The Cyborg Affect: Encountering via Switch. eTOPIA: Intersections Conference Journal 2010. Eds. Paul Couillard & Sara Martel. York University: Toronto, Ontario. Available online: https://etopia.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/etopia/article/view/36562

 

Fornssler, B. (2010). Affective Cyborgs. In Cardenas, M. / Fornssler, B. (Auths.). Trans Desire / Affective Cyborgs.New York: ATROPOS Press.

 

Select Media

CBC Radio Interview  Aired: Jan. 22, 2024

Saskatchewan provided clean pipes to drug users nearly six years ago. It was meant to help injection drug users transition away from using needles to the safer method of smoking. But that practice is no more. Saskatchewan will end the distribution of clean pipes. We talked to Barabara Fornssler a University of Saskatchewan professor from the School of Public Health. She researches substance use and harm reduction.
Direct link:

 

 Expert reacts to Saskatchewan’s plans to implement involuntary treatment (Link) CBC Saskatchewan Radio – The morning edition, February 27, 2025

Province says it’s taking new steps to crack down on illegal drugs, but will these measures make communities safer?(Link) CBC Saskatoon Morning Radio, February 27, 2025

Experts say Sask. legislation meant to crack down on public drug use may worsen crime CBC News, February 27, 2025

Drug overdoses remain a conundrum in Saskatchewan despite fewer fatalities Saskatoon StarPhoenix, January 28, 2025

Expert Calls out province over claim drug policy has increased HIV, overdose rates Regina Leader-Post, January 26, 2024


Saskatoon police should stop charging for personal drug possession, report says CTV News Saskatoon, April 19, 2022

Advocates asking Saskatoon police board to decriminalize some drug possession CBC News, April 20, 2022

The Other Epidemic Planet S Magazine (Cover Story), January 14, 2021