I was invited by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto to deliver a workshop on mental health innovation as a part of their 2019 Pushing the Paradigm conference series. 

Interdisciplinary students and professionals were gathered in teams of 4-5 to define a problem that was achievable given their assets and skill sets using the fishbone diagram.

Workshop definition: 

Mental health issues are “wicked” problems with no singular solution, and it is important for the innovator to define specific causes addressable within possible means. Problem definition is a crucial first step in the innovation process to ensure accuracy of developed solutions in the future.

This 60-minute workshop guides attendees interested in leading social innovation to methodically determine problems of interest in the mental health space using the Fishbone diagram for root cause analysis. Attendees will identify specific causes to mental health issues in small groups and then will be asked to present their findings. The goal of this workshop is to outline problems which attendees can continue to work on after the workshop, whether in research, entrepreneurship, or activism.