Srividya Iyer: Mapping mindscapes

Srividya Iyer’s name figures prominently on the list of Canadian women in public health. As the Scientific-Clinical Director of ACCESS Open Minds, she is working in the field of youth mental health and early intervention in Canada and beyond.

“Improving access to quality services is specially important for youth because the key risk periods are between the ages of eleven or twelve and 25,” she says. “Mental health is stigmatised, but it touches all of us. It is so present, so common, and yet so taboo.”

A faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, Dr Iyer is also a member of the Global Mental Health Program. She has received numerous awards and was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. 

Dr Iyer left India in 2001 to do her PhD in the US and  came to Canada as a post-doctoral fellow in 2006.

“I studied the role of family in India and in Canada and found that culture can be unpacked in so many ways. In Canada, knowledge is based on science, other kinds tend not to be so valued. My work expands the definition of what we consider knowledge.”

She tells newcomers and women who seek her advice not to put off personal milestones.

“It can be hard to do justice to both, but if you thrive personally, you thrive professionally. Resilience depends on a stable base of love and support. Our son Shaurya was born here and we had the same lack of social or family support common to many immigrants. But I love the quality of life, I love being in Quebec.”

She tells them to find a core group that they can look up to. “Because there aren’t too many people like you in positions of power, the journey can be longer, there are setbacks, but if you have people like the seniors at my university who mentored me, it is such a boost.”

And to find something meaningful.

“It’s a long, hard journey. Newcomers, specially women, have to work twice as hard to prove themselves. You make the choices that make the most sense as you navigate a new country, a new system, but every step is worth it if it is meaningful.

“For me, it is so personally rewarding to work in partnerships that find data not just in numbers but in stories and in lived experiences. I’m very privileged to work in this field.”