Blog
    BCCSU > Profiles > Driving Actionable Drug Policy Research: The At-Risk Youth Study Team

Driving Actionable Drug Policy Research: The At-Risk Youth Study Team

April 25, 2024

The ARYS team at the Granville office

The drug poisoning crisis in British Columbia and Canada is having devastating effects on young people and their loved ones. Since an official public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016, over 14,000 people, including over 1,800 young people under 30 years of age, have lost their lives to toxic drug poisoning in the province.

Youth experiencing homelessness, poverty, or mental health issues are particularly vulnerable. Yet despite these realities, evidence-based approaches to support young people are still badly needed.

Since 2005, the At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS – pronounced ‘Arise') at the BC Centre on Substance Use has aimed to address these gaps by providing information necessary to evaluate current programs and services.

Armed with evidence based on young people’s lived experiences with substance use, the goal is to inform drug policy that will improve the health and well-being of this high-risk and traditionally under-served group.

ARYS research leadership

ARYS is longitudinal cohort study of approximately 1,000 street-involved youth who use drugs in Vancouver. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the US National Institutes for Health Research, ARYS is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Kora DeBeck.

Specializing in substance use and drug policy, Dr. DeBeck is a research scientist at BCCSU and Distinguished Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University (SFU). With over 190 peer-reviewed publications, her extensive body of work aims to transform policy and services, focusing on improving the health and well-being of young people who use drugs and their communities. Her research has illuminated unintended consequences from drug law enforcement and the need to refocus efforts on addressing the underlying causes and systemic factors that contribute to drug-related harms.

Dr. DeBeck is also the recent recipient of two prestigious honours: a Dorothy Killam Fellowship and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Applied Public Health Chair.

The Killam fellowship supports accomplished scholars whose ground-breaking research stands to have a significant impact on a national or global scale. Dr. DeBeck was awarded a fellowship for her project “Responding to the toxic drug crisis: reframing the approach to drug policy and substance use.”

The Applied Public Health Chair is awarded by CIHR. Dr. DeBeck is part of the program’s fourth cohort, and will hold the chair in “Addressing the toxic drug crisis for young people who use drugs in British Columbia.”

Together, these awards will enable Dr. DeBeck and the ARYS team to further their research.

“Receiving both a Dorothy Killam Fellowship and CIHR Applied Public Health Chair is an honour and a privilege,” shared Dr. DeBeck. “It feels like an important recognition of the urgency of the toxic drug crisis and the credibility of our collective work at ARYS, the BCCSU and SFU.”

BCCSU Research Scientist and SFU Distinguished
Associate Professor, Dr. Kora DeBeck – Recipient
of the Dorothy Killam Fellowship and the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research Applied Research Chair
in Public Health

It takes more than a single scientist to conduct the important research being done by ARYS. There’s an entire team integral to the work, from interviewers to nurses to data analysts to peer research associates.

“The frontline team plays an critical role in gathering high-quality data,” explains Dr. DeBeck. “This comes from the trust and support built with participants.”

Participants first meet with a nurse on site for a health consultation and interview-administered questionnaire. Their visit can include testing for HIV and hepatitis C, and referrals to services that they may need. The consultations are intended to be low barrier and to meet youth where they are at.  If other concerns come up, the nurse works with participants to decide where they can access care, whether it be medical or social.

ARYS Nurse Research Associate, Michelle Bridgeman
Read the Q&A interview with Michelle Bridgeman here

“Sometimes study participants visit the ARYS office to see me outside of their study visits to seek information and resources, which I’m always happy to provide,” says Registered Nurse and Nurse Research Associate, Michelle Bridgeman. “Empowering them with knowledge and a platform to amplify their voices is very rewarding.”

Research trainees also play an integral part of the ARYS cohort team. The program provides a training ground for physicians specializing in addiction medicine, or for students completing their masters, PhDs, and postdocs.

Erica McAdam is both a PhD student at UBC and research manager with the current ARYS cohort. She had first worked with Dr. DeBeck on a co-op program after taking her policy class at SFU.

UBC Doctoral student and ARYS Cohort Research
Manager, Erica McAdam

“I can’t emphasize enough how much of an amazing mentor she has been,” says McAdam. “The work that she has done with ARYS has changed the lives of so many people, and it's resulted in really amazing evidence-based policy changes.”

The role of peer researchers

To further achieve impactful and community-informed research, the needs and priorities of people with lived experience and Indigenous cultural safety are a core consideration of the study. This crucial work is facilitated by Peer Research Associates and the Indigenous Peer Collaborators Circle. With the support of the Applied Public Health Chair, collaboration among these roles will be enhanced to shape research priorities and support the interpretation of evidence to drive meaningful change.

Carmen Verdicchio is one of the Peer Research Associates with the ARYS study and has been in this role for over a year. She first joined as a participant in the early years of the study. Verdicchio believes substance research has accelerated in the past decade or so largely thanks to the input of people with lived experience.

Peer Research Associate, Carmen Verdicchio

“Everyone’s experience is so different,” says Verdicchio. “Those nuances can get lost in the end result. Without the voices of people who have lived through it, we might miss key insights.”

Verdicchio emphasises that participants are also much more likely to feel comfortable and engage with the study when they see people with lived experience contributing to the program, “Opening up about your life can be scary. No one wants to be treated like a specimen.

External partners

To ensure that the scientific research coming out of ARYS is best positioned to impact public policy and practice, government decision-maker partners are part of the ARYS team from the start. Consistent with what is called an “integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach”, government decision-maker partners from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, ARYS Peer Research Associates, members of the Indigenous Peer Collaborators Circle, trainees, researchers and other community collaborators will collectively shape research priority areas and will be involved in the analysis and interpretation of data, and knowledge mobilization. In addition to regular informal connection, the APHC will fund an annual ‘Collaborators Gathering’ workshop to facilitate these connections and decisions.

Through community-based collaboration with people who use drugs and decision-maker partners, the aim is to generate a body of evidence that meaningfully centers the perspectives of people who use drugs and drives transformation in policy responses to prevent toxic drug poisonings, increase service engagement, and promote health and wellness among young people who use drugs and beyond.

The Data Team


Janet Mok – Senior Data Analyst (left),
JinCheol Choi – Statistician (middle),
Eric C. Sayre – Senior Statistician (right)

Behind the scenes, the data analysts and statisticians with the BCCSU code, clean, and manage data collected for ARYS. The data are drawn from bi-annual interviews collected from street involved youth who use drugs with initial visits at the ages of 14 to 26. This ongoing study tracks participants indefinitely, ensuring valuable insights as the toxic drug poisoning crisis evolves over time. Janet Mok, who has been with the BCCSU for seven years, leads the initial data processing, transforming raw data into analysis-ready datasets through custom code tailored to each study cycle. JinCheol Choi and Eric C. Sayre, with almost five years and a year-and-a-half at BCCSU respectively, specialize in statistical analysis. Upon receiving formal requests from principal investigators, they apply specific methodologies to generate results essential for study conclusions and publications. Together, the team's efforts drive impactful insights from cohort data, supporting critical research in youth health and interventions.

What’s Next


The ARYS team is growing in a number of ways thanks to support from Dr. DeBeck’s recent awards.

In this next chapter ahead, the team will examine this cohort’s emerging data for possible alternatives to the toxic drug supply, and how this might impact young people who use drugs. This may include safer, regulated, or prescribed alternatives to unregulated drugs. The next stage of research will also look into the potential impacts of decriminalization of personal possession, and whether interactions with law enforcement and seizures have actually changed on the ground.

By leveraging the support from the Dorothy Killam Fellowship and the CIHR Applied Research Chair in Public Health, Dr. DeBeck hopes these opportunities will drive much needed transformation in drug policy and practice. This vision is shared by the entire ARYS team, who seem reignited with excitement and optimism by the recent news.

“When Kora succeeds, it trickles down to the whole team feeling successful,” says McAdam.

Emma McHugh, Assistant Project Coordinator
with ARYS office celebrity and dog, Simon.