She wasn’t fighting crime, but instead, she was raising money for the department of clinical health psychology’s new endowed professorship in child psychology.

Dr. Jo Ann Unger (wearing a purple cape) rappelled down the side of HSC Children’s Hospital five times. (Photo courtesy of The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba)

Unger, an assistant professor of clinical health psychology at the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, took part in The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba’s Suspended Superheroes event on Oct. 3.

Dressed as Bat Girl, she rappelled down the side of HSC Children’s Hospital five times. Joined by soldiers, firefighters, police officers and other costumed participants, Unger got over her dislike for heights and rappelled the six storeys from the roof.

At each floor, she waved to children gathered at the windows to get a glimpse of their favourite superheroes. Unger played rock, paper, scissors with one child, and some kids took selfies with her through the glass.

Dr. Jo Ann Unger dressed as Bat Girl for the Suspended Superheroes event.

“It was super fun. Oh my gosh, I kept standing with my hands on my hips. It’s like, this is my new pose,” said Unger, who is also the specialty lead and section head, child and adolescent service clinical health psychology, Shared Health.

 “I thought, ‘Well, what a great way to launch our fundraising efforts to have the lead of the child and adolescent clinical psychology service rappel down a building.’”

Dr. Lesley Graff, professor and head of clinical health psychology, Max Rady College of Medicine, said the professorship will protect up to 50 per cent of a faculty member’s time for research, which complements their clinical time, and moves forward innovation in clinical care. This would double or triple the time that professors in the department might otherwise be able to direct to their research.

“Manitoba has one of the lowest per capita rates of psychologists in the country, and we have some of the greatest needs for mental health support, particularly for children,” said Unger, also a researcher with The Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

“So, we really need more child psychologists. This is one way the department of clinical health psychology is supporting the effort to attract and train more child psychologists in Manitoba.”

Dr. Jo Ann Unger about to rappel down the side of HSC Children’s Hospital. (Photo courtesy of The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba)

Graff said that Unger’s leadership to raise awareness for children’s mental health in this creative way literally took her commitment to a new level.

“Investing in clinical research to improve care for children is investing in a better future for all of us. Our department is grateful for every dollar of support as we work toward the $1.5 million goal to establish this professorship,” Graff said.

While Unger got a taste of life as Bat Girl, she said that not all superheroes wear capes.

“Child psychologists and mental health professionals who work with kids really are heroes in the sense that they are working with families to help children find a healthier path, improve their quality of life and help them engage more with their friends and family,” Unger said.

Donate today on Unger’s Suspended Superheroes page by the end of October. To give to the campaign for a new professorship in child psychology after that, please contact Priyanka Singh, senior director, major gifts, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, at priyanka.singh@umanitoba.ca or 431-323-8247.

Fifty-five years later, the revered Max Rady College of Medicine residency program is one of Canada’s largest, with 12 residents, 30 training sites and funding support to continue expanding to meet the ongoing need for psychologists in Manitoba.

Dr. Patricia Furer

“We’re proud of the contributions our residency program has made in terms of training psychologists to provide services within Manitoba and across the country. We’ve trained close to 400 psychologists and the program has been highly impactful over the past 55 years,” said Dr. Patricia Furer, clinical health psychology (CHP) residency program director and associate professor of CHP at the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

The program was set to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020 but the event had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, during the 2024-25 academic year, events were held to celebrate the program’s 55th anniversary.

The department’s grand rounds series featured former residents as invited speakers throughout the year.

Members of the clinical health psychology residency program’s 2000-01 cohort travelled from across Canada to attend the 55th anniversary dinner.

On the afternoon of May 9, 2025, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a UM clinical health psychology resident in 1991-92 and currently a distinguished professor at Northeastern University in Boston, gave a special grand rounds presentation. She is among the top 0.1 per cent most-cited scientists in the world for her groundbreaking research in psychology and neuroscience.

And that evening, a gala dinner took place at The Leaf at Assiniboine Park to celebrate the program’s 55th anniversary. Close to 200 alumni, faculty, current residents and distinguished guests attended.

Dr. Lesley Graff

Looking around the room at the dinner, Dr. Lesley Graff, professor and head of clinical health psychology, observed the striking number of national leaders who had trained at UM.

“Some alumni have served as vice-presidents of hospitals. Others have been president of the Canadian Psychological Association, and many are well-known internationally for their clinical research. This typifies the exceptional quality of trainees we’ve been attracting to our program for decades,” said Graff, who was in the residency program’s 1991-92 cohort.

Leaders in the field

The clinical health psychology residency program was launched in 1969 by Dr. Robert Martin, the chief psychologist of the constellation of hospitals which later became Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre (HSC).

In 1978, residency training expanded from HSC to include St. Boniface Hospital.

The program was the first CHP residency program in Canada to be accredited by the American Psychological Association. In 1988, it obtained dual accreditation once the Canadian Psychological Association began accrediting residency programs.

“We’ve been continuously accredited since our very first accreditation. This is a remarkable accomplishment,” Graff said.

In 1990, Dr. John Arnett was appointed section head for psychology. Arnett and residency training director Dr. Bob McIlwraith worked with the deputy minister of health, Dr. John Wade (UM dean emeritus), to fund the Rural and Northern Program. It has since trained 66 residents.

Graff said the innovative program challenged the status quo of fly-in service, instead placing psychologists in rural and northern communities to live and work, along with residents doing clinical rotations.

“It was a groundbreaking model at the time. What we’ve been doing for 30 years is really just being picked up as an ideal model more recently by other specialties” Graff said.

In 1995, the department of clinical health psychology was established. Arnett served as the inaugural department head for a decade.

“The residency program was originally under the section of behavioral science. It was a really significant milestone that we became a full department at UM’s medical school, and this year we’re proud to be celebrating our 30th anniversary,” Graff said.

In 2000, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) CEO Dr. Brian Postl (UM dean emeritus), established clinical health psychology as a full regional clinical program. This led to the expansion of resident training opportunities in areas such as cardiac sciences, bariatric surgery, pediatric diabetes and chronic pain.

McIlwraith was appointed head of the department and medical director of the regional program from 2005 to 2015.

In 2016, Graff was appointed CHP department head and WRHA program medical director. In 2019, she became first provincial lead for clinical health psychology, and has worked closely with the province and health leadership to increase the residency program training seats and clinical positions to meet the need for psychologists across the health system.

Continuing the legacy

Today, the program’s training streams include child psychology, adult psychology, medical psychology, neuropsychology and rural practice.

“The breadth and range of training opportunities that we offer within our residency program and the way we are positioned within a medical school sets us apart from other Canadian programs,” Furer said.

The clinical health psychology residency program’s current cohort.

The Max Rady College of Medicine residents are also exposed to the innovative clinical research being conducted by UM faculty members. The department is close to reaching its fundraising goal of $1.5 million to establish an endowed professorship in clinical health psychology and will be launching a campaign to establish an endowed professorship in child psychology.

The most recent residency accreditation, which took place in 2024, earned high praise from the national reviewers. Graff said they described the program as “truly outstanding and could be considered a model program for psychology residency training in Canada.”

Looking to the future, Furer said the program is committed to strengthening diversity in professional psychology.

“We look forward to continuing to provide the stellar level of training that we do now and to remain on the leading edge of new areas of practice for psychologists and innovations in clinical care for years to come,” Furer said.

Dr. Kristene Cheung

Cheung also works as a clinical psychologist at the Manitoba FASD Centre, an assessment, training, education and research service of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Child Health Program.  
 
“The families we see at the Manitoba FASD Centre inspire most of our research questions,” Cheung said. “In academia, there is often a delay between conducting research, disseminating the findings and implementation. However, as a clinician and researcher, I’m uniquely positioned to immediately translate our research findings into clinical practice.” 
 
Cheung’s main research focus is on the outcomes of children and adolescents with PAE and FASD who are seen at the Manitoba FASD Centre. She also focuses on caregiver- and family-related outcomes of families of children with PAE in relation to diagnostic process and programming. 
 
Cheung and her team are currently working on research projects about the relationship between caregiver stress and caregivers’ attributions for challenging child behaviours. While these projects are not specifically about caregivers of children with PAE and FASD, Cheung said the results could be applied to them. 
 
“So far, we’ve learned that levels of caregiver stress are lower when caregivers believe their child’s challenging behaviours are temporary and caused by more external factors, such as the situation, rather than something about the child. We also learned that caregiver stress levels are lower when caregivers believe their child’s behaviour is not intentional,” Cheung said.  
 
Cheung and her team recently published a paper in Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders. They looked at who was participating in research about caregivers, how they were participating and what outcomes were examined. 
 
They learned that most of the participants were female caregivers, middle-aged, adoptive parents, caregivers of young children, caregivers of children with FASD, and from the United States.  
 
“This told us that the current research may not be generalizable to the families we see at the Manitoba FASD Centre,” she said.  
 
Cheung said her research aims to improve the day-to-day lives of children and caregivers.  
 
“I hope our research can help inform clinical practice at the Manitoba FASD Centre and other diagnostic clinics,” she said. “Having research data supporting our clinical observations has been helpful, especially when working directly with families and consulting with other clinicians.”  
 
The department of clinical health psychology is currently running a campaign to raise $1.3 million to establish its first endowed professorship. The position will help support important research like Cheung’s.  
 
The new professorship will protect up to 50 per cent of a clinical faculty member’s time for research. This would double or triple the base time that faculty in the department might otherwise be able to direct to their research. 

To make a contribution, visit: https://give.umanitoba.ca/. 
 
For more information about the endowed professorship in clinical health psychology and to discuss funding opportunities, please contact Rady Faculty of Health Sciences donor relations officer Sam Slutchuk at sam.slutchuk@umanitoba.ca. 

UM Knowledge Exchange is an important opportunity for UM researchers to share emerging knowledge with members of the public and the wider UM community. UM Knowledge Exchange is hosted by the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International), with support from the UM Learning for Life Network.

Join us for this opportunity to feed your curiosity and nourish your understanding of the brain-gut connection and explore the intriguing interplay of mind and metabolism. Our expert panel will uncover valuable strategies for maintaining health and managing IBD with this engaging and informative presentation.

Moderator

Jean-Eric Ghia, Professor, Depts. Immunology & Internal Medicine section of Gastroenterology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Panelists

Heather Armstrong, Assistant Professor and Tier 2 CRC, Department of Internal Medicine, Manitoba Center for Proteomics and System Biology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Charles Bernstein, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Bingham Chair in Gastroenterology, Department on Internal Medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Lesley Graff, Professor, Head Dept of Clinical Health Psychology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Provincial Medical Specialty Lead- Clinical Health Psychology Shared Health.

Jennifer Kornelsen, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.

Brain and Gut: working together in health and disease, March 27, 7pm-8:30pm (CDT) at Degrees Diner. UM Knowledge Exchange is a hybrid event with in-person and online options to attend.

Please register by March 22 to join the discussion.

Add Brain and Gut: working together in health and disease to your calendar. Coffee and other refreshments will be provided, and the kitchen at Degrees Diner will be open for specialty coffee and full food service. Parking is available with registration.

Or join us for online viewing 7 pm CDT to watch the live stream. Participate during the live session by asking your questions via email to: Research [dot] Communications [at] UManitoba [dot] ca

The seven-part UM Knowledge Exchange panel-discussion series is ongoing until May 2024. More details can be found on the UM Knowledge Exchange webpage.

The professorship will help support cutting-edge research like the work of Dr. Norah Vincent. The professor of clinical health psychology at the Max Rady College of Medicine is an expert in the delivery of evidence-based and cost-effective treatments for sleep disorders.

Vincent, a four-time UM alum, developed an innovative web-based program that has treated thousands of Manitobans with insomnia over the years since it was first launched in 2006. The program, which is offered through Shared Health’s Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at Health Sciences Centre, incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and lets patients access the treatment when it’s convenient to them.

“This treatment was one of the first of its kind in North America and Manitoba is the only place where this online aspect of service is offered in the public health system. We’re well known for it,” she said.

Vincent is currently researching an understudied class of sleep disorders called parasomnias, which include sleep terrors, nightmare disorder and sleepwalking. She describes it as the brain being half awake and half asleep at the same time.

Vincent recently completed a randomized control trial where people with parasomnias took part in a virtual treatment with a clinical health psychologist. The treatment included new cognitive techniques that train the brain in how to respond properly when asleep but can be conducted while the patient is awake. Prior to bedtime, this involves preparing the sleep environment and the mind to respond appropriately during sleep, Vincent said.

The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine and Vincent said the next step is to move it to an online course so it can be used widely.

“Ultimately, my goal is to have people sleeping better at night and feeling better during the daytime,” she said.

Department of clinical health psychology professors, like Vincent, typically have less than 20 per cent of their time for research. Vincent said it’s often challenging to carve out time to do research between seeing patients, teaching and meetings.

The new professorship will protect up to 50 per cent of a clinical faculty member’s time for research. This would double or triple the base time that faculty in the department might otherwise be able to direct to their research.

“The endowed professorship in clinical health psychology will be a catalyst to advance innovation in clinical care and expand the work in the department for the benefit of Manitobans,” said Dr. Lesley Graff, professor and head of clinical health psychology. “With your support, we can build on that capacity for innovation.”

To make a contribution, visit: http://give.umanitoba.ca/.

For more information about the endowed professorship in clinical health psychology and to discuss funding opportunities, please contact Rady Faculty donor relations officer Adrienne Domingo at Adrienne.Domingo@umanitoba.ca or 204-789-3537.