Think Tank - June 19th, 2026

Speakers will be announced closer to the event. Check back for updates!

Advancing Sexually Transmitted Blood-Borne Infections (STBBI) Awareness & Access
Roselyn Kyeame, BSc, MPH
Health Promotion Specialist, Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
Razane Diab, BScN, MSN
Infectious Disease Prevention Manager, Windsor-Essex County Health Unit

This presentation introduces the development of a community-informed sexual health committee aimed at strengthening collaboration and guiding local STBBI priorities. Led by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, the think tank brings together partners from academic, clinical, and community sectors to share perspectives, identify gaps, and co-create strategies to improve sexual health outcomes. Through collaborative discussion, participants will explore opportunities for research partnerships, knowledge exchange and coordinated action addressing stigma and awareness to enhance access to testing, prevention and treatment services. This session will also focus on building sustainable relationships that will support ongoing engagement and inform future programming and policy development. 

The presenters are seeking community partners involved with the following areas: core medical, shelter health, Hiatus House, harm reduction, community support, positive pathways, WECHC, hepatitis C outreach, teen health, Melo clinic, pregnancy centres, correctional facility - Southwest Detention Centre, mobile outreach, and medical mobile services.

Psychological Closure: A Measurable Construct Linking Memory, Mental Health, and Wellbeing
Chantal Boucher, PhD, CPsych
Assistant Professor & Clinical Psychologist, University of Windsor

Psychological closure refers to a state of resolution in which painful, confusing, or unresolved life experiences no longer require ongoing emotional and cognitive processing. Conceptualized as a memory phenomenon, closure is closely linked to the way individuals experience memories in the present. “Open” memories may continue to evoke distress long after an event has occurred and are associated with regret, self-criticism, and intrusive rumination, which in turn can lead to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Despite its clinical and theoretical relevance, closure has remained poorly understood, in part because it has been inconsistently defined and measured. 

This talk introduces the Closure and Resolution Scale (CRS; Boucher et al., 2025), a validated multidimensional self-report measure assessing six facets of closure: finality, understanding, felt distance, emotional relief, reduced preoccupation, and reduced need to act. Across four studies (N = 783), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a multidimensional structure with strong psychometric properties. Construct validity was supported by correlational patterns with conceptually distinct and similar constructs (e.g., unfinished business, mental itch).

The presentation will situate closure within broader research on autobiographical memory, emotional processing, and mental health, including links to intrusive remembering, self-relevance, emotional distress, and tailored retrieval strategies such as self-compassion and mindful recollection inductions. Ongoing directions include mixed-methods research on barriers and determinants of closure, cross-cultural adaptations of the CRS, and applications across interpersonal, grief/loss, morally injurious, and health-related memories in clinical and community populations. Implications for interdisciplinary health research, psychotherapy, and community-based mental health initiatives will be discussed.

If you have any questions/ideas for our Think Tanks or would like to present at a future Think Tank, please contact us at wesparkhealth@uwindsor.ca. To learn more about these events, please visit our Think Tank webpage!