Five Questions With: Dr. Daisy Singla, Senior Scientist, Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) 

Dr. Daisy Singla has built her career on a simple but radical idea: mental healthcare should be accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. As a clinical psychologist and global mental health researcher, she has spent years challenging the traditional model of therapy — proving that effective treatment doesn’t have to be expensive, exclusive, or out of reach. 

Now a womenmind^TM senior scientist at CAMH and associate professor at the University of Toronto, Daisy leads some of the largest psychotherapy trials in the world, including the SUMMIT Trial, which is redefining maternal mental healthcare in North America. Her work, spanning from Toronto to rural Uganda, focuses on scaling mental health solutions through innovation — whether that means task-sharing, peer supervision, or rethinking how therapy is delivered at scale. She was also the youngest recipient of a $13.1 million Pragmatic Clinical Study Award from the Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI), and her contributions to psychological science have been recognized internationally. 

In this conversation, Daisy reflects on the future of mental healthcare, the barriers that still prevent people — especially women — from getting the support they need, and why the way we think about therapy may need to change. 

Your research challenges the traditional model of therapy, proving that mental healthcare can be both effective and scalable. What first led you to question the way treatment is typically delivered? 

Early in my career, I was struck by the vast gap between those who need mental healthcare and those who receive it. Traditional talk therapy, while effective, remains largely inaccessible — and constrained by cost, geography, and a shortage of trained professionals. I started to ask: if we know evidence-based talk therapies work and are recommended by all international clinical guidelines, why are they inaccessible for most? 

Task-sharing, a care model in which trained non-specialists provide care, has been applied successfully in global health for decades. My research explores how we can apply this same approach to mental health, expanding access without sacrificing the quality of care. 

The SUMMIT Trial is one of the largest psychotherapy studies ever conducted. What do you hope it will reveal — not just about maternal mental health, but about how we think about therapy as a whole? 

At its core, the SUMMIT Trial is about reimagining how therapy is delivered and accessed.  

Depression and anxiety symptoms place a significant burden on mothers worldwide, leading to high personal and societal costs. While psychological treatments — including behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal therapies — are well-established and preferred by many women over medication, access remains a critical challenge.  Common barriers to accessing effective mental healthcare include the shortage of trained specialists, cost and transportation.   

The SUMMIT Trial is designed to address this gap by testing whether a task-sharing model, where non-specialist providers deliver therapy, can be as effective as traditional specialist-led care. We also examined whether telemedicine-delivered talk therapy was as effective as in-person care.  To date, SUMMIT is one of the largest psychotherapy trials in the world.   

Our results (published this week in Nature Medicine), showed that telemedicine and non-specialist providers — in this case, nurses, midwives and doulas- were as effective as in-person, specialist providers in the delivery of a brief, 8-session talk therapy.  The findings offer hope to mothers, clinicians and healthcare systems across Canada to rethink how resources can be optimized to improve access to effective mental healthcare.   

Beyond maternal mental health, this study has broader implications for the future of therapy. If these scalable, cost-effective approaches to mental healthcare proves effective, it challenges long-held assumptions about who can provide therapy and how treatment should be structured. My hope is that SUMMIT will show that we can break down barriers without compromising care. 

Women, especially mothers, are disproportionately affected by mental health challenges, yet support is often inadequate or inaccessible. How does your work address this gap, and what more needs to be done? 

Our work focuses on examining patient-centered solutions to help overcome common and often gendered-focused barriers.  There are several barriers to accessing mental health treatment, including cost, time, stigma, and the assumption that therapy must be delivered by highly trained professionals. For mothers, these challenges are compounded by caregiving responsibilities and a lack of flexible support options. 

My work is centered on addressing these gaps by making care more accessible. If trained non-specialists can deliver therapy effectively, we could reach far more women than our current system allows. However, research alone isn’t enough — policy change is essential. We need to integrate mental healthcare into routine maternal care, fund scalable interventions, and acknowledge that mental health support is just as critical as physical health during and after pregnancy. 

You became the youngest recipient of a $13.1 million research award — a milestone that placed you in leadership early in your career. What did that experience teach you about influence, credibility, and navigating spaces where women are often underrepresented? 

Receiving that award was an incredible milestone — not just for me, but for women’s mental health, and early career researchers. Typically, women’s mental health is not prioritized and underfunded; and early career researchers are discouraged from leading large studies.  This award reinforced that large-scale, practical solutions to mental healthcare are not just possible, but necessary, and they can be led successfully by young female researcher. 

This experience provided valuable insights into building credibility, influencing change, and leading in spaces where women are often underrepresented. I’ve learned that credibility is earned through persistence and collaboration — especially when championing evidence-based solutions that challenge outdated or inefficient models. Engaging diverse voices, fostering partnerships, and creating space for new perspectives that push the field forward.  Navigating these spaces as a woman in research has also reinforced the importance of representation.  

If you could change one aspect of the mental health system overnight, what would it be? 

For every pregnant or postpartum woman across Canada and globally to access timely brief talk therapy as part of her routine care.   

Investing in maternal mental health is not just a moral imperative but an economic necessity.  In Canada, the costs of untreated maternal mental health conditions are estimated at $2 billion annually in healthcare expenses, lost economic productivity and long-term generational and society impact. The time is now to prioritize mental healthcare.