In celebration of Dr. Barrera's retirement and immense contributions to SickKids, Dr. Barrera is on a mission to raise $100,000 in support of the Psychology Research Fund at SickKids.
Dr. Barrera's unwavering passion and commitment to the patients and families at SickKids is truly inspiring. Please consider donating here. Thank you for your generosity!
Dr. Maru Barrera
Dr. Barrera is a pediatric health psychologist and clinician scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, working in pediatric oncology for 30 years. As a clinician, she has provided psychological therapy and support to thousand of children/adolescent, their caregivers and siblings in two languages English and Spanish, when needed, and consultation to colleagues regarding psychological support for these families. In terms of clinical services, Dr. Barrera pioneered family involvement in the care of the child/adolescent with cancer, including a variety of issues such as parent-patient, patient-sibling relationships and parenting training. In addition, in collaboration with colleagues and trainees, Dr. Barrera developed conducted group psychosocial interventions for patients, siblings and parents. Over the years, Dr. Barrera has been involved in a number of committees in the Psychology Dept. (Education, Social and Internship committees), and Haematology/Oncology Division and the hospital in general (including the Bereavement Task Force, wellness Committee, scientific peer reviewer and selection committees). At the community level, Dr. Barrera has been a great advocate for children and adolescents with cancer and their families, speaking at many meetings of parent organizations on a variety of subjects provincially, nationally and internationally, and co-chairing the Psychosocial Service Committee of the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario for over 10 years.
As a scientist, her research program has included longitudinal and cross-sectional projects, using quantitative and qualitative methodology to describe the psychosocial impact of childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment during and after treatment, and at the end of life and bereavement. She and her colleagues have developed and assessed psychosocial interventions for youth and their families managing pediatric cancer, using RCT designs. For the last 10 years Dr. Barrera and her colleagues have been examining the importance of systematic, routine, psychosocial screening and the challenges for its integration in clinical care. This research culminated in the development of a simple, measurement-based psychosocial screening-intervention, a form of precision psychosocial intervention. She has published over 150 articles in the field, and her research has been funded by national (e.g., CCSRI, CIHR, Cundill Foundation for Child and Youth Depression, Centre for Brain and Mental Health at SickKids) and international (e.g., NIH, ACS, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer) organizations. She has been a mentor to hundreds of pre-doctoral, residency, post-doctoral and graduate students. Being a Mexican-Canadian, she has been actively involved in promoting health in the Latinx community in the metropolitan Toronto area, and in disseminating pediatric oncology psychosocial knowledge in Latino-American countries.
This year, Dr Barrera was the recipient of the Distinguished Dennis Drotar Research Award, which was awarded by the Society of Pediatric Psychology. This is the society yearly most prestigious research award. It recognizes, honours and pay tributes to a pediatric psychologist who excel in his/her research career accomplishments, who has a meaningful and lasting impact on many pediatric psychologists around the world. Finally, Dr. Barrera is the recipient of the 2022 Canadian Association of Psycho-Oncology Life Achievement Award. Dr. Barrera will be receiving the award of the CAPO meeting in Toronto in September.