Aggie Mazzucco is the Senior Project Manager for the Prenatal Opioid Exposure (POE) project at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children. In the feature below, she shares updates on the project and discusses her commitment to community-based research.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself and your role as a Senior Project Manager for the Prenatal Opioid Exposure (POE) project?
I hold a Master of Health Science in Health Promotion from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and have been managing projects focused on health equity.
For the past two years, I have enjoyed my role as Senior Project Manager. Since 2018, my primary focus has been research related to prenatal opioid exposure, working alongside Dr. Astrid Guttmann, Chief Science Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer at ICES, and Co-Director at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children.
In response to concerns raised by several First Nations in the lower half of Ontario, we partnered with 13 First Nations communities to increase understanding about the impacts of prenatal opioid exposure on children, mothers, families, caregivers, service providers, educators and communities as a whole, strengths that can be built upon, and strategies to enhance supports for families and prevent prenatal opioid exposure. This research was rooted in First Nations-centred principles, ethics, and approaches, including the First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP®).
In Phase 1, we produced individual community reports that included a literature review along with each community’s unique quantitative and qualitive findings, as well as aggregate and summary reports.
In Phase 2 of the project, we welcomed Priscilla Medeiros, Knowledge Mobilization and Community Engagement Specialist at the Centre, to the project team. Together, we worked with Advisory Working Groups from nine First Nations communities to co-design, implement, and evaluate community-specific knowledge mobilization plans to affect change related to prenatal opioid exposure. Community-led knowledge mobilization products and activities included social media campaigns, conferences, a community declaration to address the opioid crisis, and videos such as this one featuring a community member from Aamjiwnaang First Nation sharing her experience of resilience and transformation called, Memengwaanh (Butterfly). You can watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgI1VkJrvc.
Q: What aspects of your role do you find most meaningful or rewarding, especially in the context of working with First Nations communities in Ontario?
For me, it’s all about connecting people with a shared interest or concern. Community engagement is my passion. I value bringing people together around issues that matter to them and supporting action that reflects their priorities. Through First Nations-led research, I have been able to cultivate partnerships that are respectful, community and culturally appropriate, and responsive to community needs.
Q: What are some of the project milestones you are currently leading within the POE project or across the Centre?
We are currently conducting a project-level evaluation, writing papers for publication, presenting findings to organizational partners, and submitting conference abstracts to share our learnings about First Nations-led knowledge mobilization.
We recently published a protocol paper in BMJ Open for the project’s mixed-methods evaluation, which explores the processes and impacts of working with community-based Advisory Working Groups to co-design and implement their knowledge mobilization plans. We are also laying the groundwork to advance our efforts to respond to prenatal opioid exposure.
Q: Looking ahead, which upcoming initiatives or next steps in the POE project are you most excited about?
I am excited about continuing to put knowledge into action. We have information on the rates and trends of prenatal opioid exposure and neonatal abstinence syndrome, and have conducted 51 focus groups and interviews across all participating communities. Combined with our experience of co-designing community-specific knowledge mobilization plans, this provides a good starting foundation for next steps.
Looking ahead, we plan to use this information to inform First Nations-focused action on prenatal opioid exposure through outputs such as co-designed, culturally relevant resources on pregnancy and opioids, as well as broader clinical practice guidelines to support the developmental surveillance of children with a history of prenatal opioid exposure, with relevant partners. For some of this work, we will be collaborating with Centre Senior Research Associate, Andi Camden, Clinical Research Project Coordinator, Reshma Patel, and members of the Canadian Perinatal Opioid Project. Whatever we do, it will be informed and supported by Community Partners.
