Health and Wellness in Arctic Military Deployments: A GBA+ Study of Structural Influences and Supports

Funding opportunity

Researchers are invited to apply for a new grant funding opportunity sponsored by Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS) Women and Diversity Health program (WDH) to assess factors influencing health and operational fitness in the Canadian Arctic.

Anticipated timeline and budget

Background

Women and diverse populations have been historically under-researched in medicine, and this has limited our knowledge of their unique health needs, including health risks, prevention, and treatment options. For these reasons, CFHS established the WDH program. The program aims to optimize prevention and care for women and members with diversity factors, using an intersectional lens, to improve their physical, mental and psychosocial wellbeing. This is aligned with governmental priorities and current shifts in research.

Since its inception in 2022, the WDH program has focused on establishing relationships with stakeholders and partners to identify collaborative opportunities and minimize duplication of effort, as well as to begin to identify opportunities for high priority research.

The Government of Canada is increasing the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) presence in the Arctic. Currently, the CAF maintains a presence as far north as Alert, as well as operating in other permanent and temporary locations. Iqaluit, Inuvik and Yellowknife are now planned to be Northern Operational Support Hub locations reflecting the strategic commitment to enhancing Canada’s Arctic presence. The CAF conducts various exercises in the North each year and these are expected to increase. For example, Op NANOOK is currently four deployments per year, and is likely to increase to six or more, with each lasting a month or longer. The Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy ships navigate Arctic waters May to November. The goal of this funding opportunity is to better understand the health and wellness needs of women and CAF members with diverse identify factors under conditions of Arctic deployments of weeks or months duration. The goal is to ensure we are facilitating all members in their occupational and operational opportunities.

Objectives

The aim of this call for research is to:

1. Explore the experience of CAF personnel in Arctic deployment and how Arctic deployments affect the health and wellness of military personnel, with a specific focus on women and members with diverse identity factors including Black and Indigenous members of the CAF, as well as CAF members who identify as gender diverse. We seek a contrast between the deployment experience in an Arctic environment with other deployments environments and contexts.
2. Identify how GBA+, and social determinants of health intersectionality shapes experiences of health, and access to services and support while on deployment.
3. Identify existing services and support that are available or lacking during Arctic deployments and assess their accessibility, effectiveness, and inclusivity as well as suggested solutions or improvements from participants or the literature.

Research teams are encouraged to consider several domains of health and wellness that may impact operational effectiveness in the Arctic, and how these may intersect. Examples include, but are not limited to, nutrition, physical activity, injury prevention, sleep, substance use, mental and social wellness, stress, physical safety, occupational health, and the cold weather environment. Specific experiences could relate to light exposure (e.g. short period of natural light in winter and long ones in the summer), lack of internet connectivity and connection with support network, lack of availability of fresh food, and other experiences specific to the Arctic environment.

Research teams may wish to use a mixed methods approach, and include a literature review (including review of military and non-military arctic-related literature, grey and white), quantitative (survey), and qualitative methods (such as through key informant interviews, focus group), or other methods (e.g environmental scan observation that could be in part collected by participants in deployment).

Research teams are encouraged to consult with a variety of stakeholders such as:

• Military personnel with recent (past 5 years) Arctic deployment experience
• Key leadership stakeholders (e.g. commanding officers, medical staff, policy advisors, operations and logistics planners, etc.)
• Diverse representation across gender, rank, cultural background, and role
• Other groups deemed pertinent such as NATO WG of Operations in the Arctic and CAF WG on Operations in the Arctic.

Relevant frameworks include The Defence Team Total Health and Wellness nine dimensions of health and spheres of influence (Strategic Framework: Total Health and Wellness, 2022) and the COM-B and behavior change wheel (Michie, van Stralen & West, 2011).

Desired Outputs

A research study in the format of a report, including an Executive Summary, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Data analysis, Results, Discussion and References, and the other specifications as described above. The research team is encouraged to publish their findings in one or more peer-reviewed publications. Any funds needed for publication should be accounted for in the budget.

The report can address the following objectives:

• A comprehensive understanding of what supports or hinders health, wellness and force readiness in Arctic deployments, with a focus on women and members with diverse identity factors.
• Identification of equity gaps, and structural barriers and facilitators of health and wellness
• Consider providing recommendations for policy refinement, program development, infrastructure improvements
• Leadership strategies
• A GBA+-informed model for future military health planning, with SAGER guidelines followed.
• Quarterly reports provided to WDH
• Virtual presentations of findings (may take place after the project end date)
• Clear knowledge mobilization and education plan, which may include briefing reports for military leadership and health planners, policy briefs, key actionable recommendations, academic publications and conference publications (accounted for in budget) and visual tools and infographics for stakeholder engagement.

Applicant qualifications and requirements

• Principal investigator (PI) must have a PhD or MD in a relevant field.
• All appropriate academic research guidelines must be followed, including a research ethics board approval from an accredited academic institution in Canada prior to funding being issued if applicable to the method(s) selected.
• Additional internal DND/CFHS approval will be required for research involving CAF members. A CFHS point of contact will be provided to facilitate this process once the research proposals are selected.
• All reports, publications, and presentations from this funding opportunity are required to acknowledge that the research was carried out in response to a Funding Opportunity developed and funded by the CFHS WDH.

Application deadline

As stated above. Please download and submit the Research Funding Application form.

Applicants are advised to include eight weeks of administrative lead-time in their timelines. This will allow for ethics board submission and approval (if required), and the drafting and signing of the funding agreement.

Enquiries

Questions about this funding opportunity can be sent to the VAC Research office.

References

Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada. (2022). Strategic Framework: Total Health and Wellness. The Defence Team Total Health and Wellness Strategy. 2.1 Dimensions of Health

Michie, S., van Stralen, M.M. & West, R. The behavior change wheel: A new method for characterizing and designing behavior change interventions. Implementation Sci 6, 42 (2011). The behaviour change wheel