Dr. Mohamed is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Social Work and a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar. He is an affiliated research investigator with Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and a past Clinical Addiction Fellow at the British Columbia Center on Substance Use.

Dr. Mohamed’s areas of research focus on global mental health, addiction, mental health and psychosocial support and peacebuilding, task-shifting/sharing in lower- and middle-income (LMIC) settings.

He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in health and addiction. His health leadership and clinical work covers over 20 years in East Africa including working in the Kenya public health care system, refugee and internally displaced settings in Somalia, Kenya and Uganda. Dr. Mohamed also has extensive clinical experience in the mental health and addiction sector in Canada and United States of America.

Education

PhD Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Graduate Certificate in Global Mental Health, Harvard University
Clinical Addiction Fellowship British Columbia Center on Substance Use, The University of British Columbia
MSW Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis
RN Kenya Medical Training College

Selected Awards and Grants awarded as Principal Investigator

Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar, 2024-2029
Project: Strengthening mental health in Horn of Africa (IGAD region) and Somalia (MH-Care)
Amount: $450,000
https://healthresearchbc.ca/award_researcher/mohamed-ibrahim/

Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)-Project Grant, 2024-2028
Project: Strengthening mental health services through enhancing the capacity of health workers in Somalia (MH Care-Somalia).
Amount: $420,572

UBC Arts Research Abroad Grant, 2020-2025
Project: Advance research and experiential learning in Global Mental Health
Duration: 2020-2026
Summer 2025 intake and application for the global mental health course in Kenya is now open
https://orice.ubc.ca/geep-program/2025s-sowk-440j-571-global-mental-health/

Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) 2020-2024
Project: Targeted Education for Nurses and Social Workers to Improve Screening for MHSU in Centralized Mental Health and Substance Use Intake Services in Vancouver
Amount: $30,000

Selected Grants awarded as Co-Investigator

New Frontiers in Research Fund, 2024-2026
Project: Evaluating Longitudinal Evidence for using health incentiVes to Address and Treat Opioid Use Disorder Effectively (the ELEVATE Study)”.
Amount: $250,000
PI: Dr. Nadia Fairbairn

BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction Seed Grant, 2023-2025
Project: Mental Health Crisis Response Indicators for BC
Amount: $150,000
PI: Dr. Beth Snow

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-Insight Grant, 2020-2024
Project: Realizing Human Rights and Equity in Mental Health Services in Canada, Australia and Kenya
Amount: $348,938
Role: Dr. Marina Morrow

Research Affiliations

Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute — Affiliated Investigator
World Health Organization-Somalia Country Office — Affiliated Researcher
British Columbia Center on Substance Use — Advisory Committee for SW Addiction Fellowship
Eviance (formerly Canadian Center for Disability Studies) — Research board member
School of Public Health and Research, Somali National University — Visiting Professor

Josewski, V., Morrow, M., Warkentin, R., Ibrahim, M., & Cohen, A. J. (2024). British Columbia’s mental health system: Addressing systemic human rights issues. Studies in Social Justice, 18(3), 440-460. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v18i3.4077

Di Pierdomenico, K., Kamau, V., Ibrahim, M, Njenga, M., Morrow, M., & Warkentin, R. (2024). Mental health in Kenya: Tensions between human rights approaches and colonial care. Studies in Social Justice, 18(3), 515-532. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v18i3.4066

Ibrahim, M. (2024). Medical Returnees: Somali Canadians Seeking Psychosocial and Spiritual Care in East Africa. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-024-09869-1

Ibrahim, M. (2023). Dhagan Celis (Cultural Rehabilitation): Somali Canadians Transnational Approach to Youth Substance Use. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01843-8

Salad, A. M., Malik, S. M. M. R., Ndithia, J. M., Noor, Z., Madeo, M., & Ibrahim, M. (2023). Prevalence of mental disorders and psychological trauma among conflict-affected population in Somalia: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1219992

Ibrahim, M. & Mojab, F., (2023). Healing Through Faith: The Role of Spiritual Healers in Providing Psychosocial Support to Canadian Muslims. Journal of Muslim Mental Health 17(1): 5. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.2057

Ibrahim, M. & Ibrahim, H.A. (2022). Conflict resolution and peacebuilding: social work practice in humanitarian settings. Journal of Social Work Education and Practice. 7(2) 01-13. ISSN: 2456-2068

Ibrahim M., Malik, M. & Noor, Z. (2022). Investing in mental health in Somalia: harnessing community mental health services through task shifting. Global Mental Health 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2022.4

Ibrahim, M., Rizwan, H., Afzal, M & Malik, M. (2022). Mental health crisis in Somalia: a review and a way forward. International Journal of Mental Health System 16, 12 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-022-00525-y

Ibrahim, H., Magu, S. & Ibrahim, M. (2021). To Starve or Catch COVID-19? Emergency Management of a Public Health Crisis and Impact on Economically Distressed Communities. Journal of Sociology and Social Work. https://doi.org/10.15640/jssw.v9n2a3

Ibrahim, M. (2021). Mad Mullah: The psychiatrization of Somalia’s freedom fighter. Journal of Somali Studies: Research on Somalia and the Greater Horn of African Countries.

Ibrahim, M. (2020). COVID-19 in the era of opioid overdose: a glimmer of hope in the midst of double whammy tragedy. Journal of Child and Youth Services. Taylor & Francis. doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2020.1835159

Van Veen, C., Ibrahim, M. & Morrow, M. (2018). Dangerous discourses : masculinity, coercion and psychiatry. Macmillan.

Ibrahim, M. (2017) Mental Health in Africa: human rights approaches to decolonization. In Morrow, M. & Malcoe, L.H. (Eds.). Critical Inquiries: Theories and Methodologies for Social Justice in Mental Health. University of Toronto Press. Toronto.

Ibrahim, M. & Morrow, M. (2015). Weaning off colonial psychiatry in Kenya. Journal in Ethics of Mental Health. Open Volume 1:1-6

Ibrahim, M. (2014). Mental health in Kenya: Not yet Uhuru. Disability and the Global South, Vol.1, No. 2, 393-400.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=_pCGWYcAAAAJ&hl=en

Areas of Scholarship: Refugee and new immigrant health, decolonizing global mental health, mental health and human rights.

Areas of Practice: Interdisciplinary care, mental health, addiction and harm reduction.