Tyler R. BlackMD, FRCPC
Evidence over alarm in youth mental health.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia
I have spent 18 years caring for young people in psychiatric crisis, and most of that time arguing that we prevent suicide better when we reason from data than from fear. I build the tools clinicians use at the bedside, publish on what the numbers actually show, and translate that evidence for parliaments, courts, newsrooms and the public.
- 18+ years in child & adolescent psychiatry
- 11 years as a hospital medical director
- 16 peer-reviewed papers
- 3 appearances before Parliament and the Senate
- 458 citations · h-index 10 Google Scholar, 2026-08
What I speak and consult on
- Youth suicide: what the data actually says Base rates, risk assessment, and why the predicted pandemic surge never arrived.
- Emergency and crisis psychiatry Assessment, disposition and safer systems for young people in acute crisis.
- Moral panic and mental health reporting Screens, school closures and social media, separated from the evidence.
- Paediatric psychopharmacology Prescribing, deprescribing and tapering in children and adolescents.
Selected roles
- Clinical Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University
- Chair, Science Advisory Table on Suicide Prevention, Public Health Agency of Canada
- Chair, Economics, BC Psychiatric Association
- Co-editor, Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs for Children and Adolescents (5th ed.)
- Co-developer of HEARTSMAP; creator of ASARI, psychtools.ca and taperchoice.org
Selected work
- Suicide and Self-Harm in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a PICU database study, 2016–2021 Pediatric Critical Care Medicine2024
- Measuring Mental Health Crises During the COVID-19 Pandemic JAMA Network Open — invited commentary2023
- Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs for Children and Adolescents, 5th ed. Hogrefe — co-editor2023
- Children’s Risk of Suicide Increases on School Days Scientific American2022
Commentary and expert analysis for
CBC·CTV·Global News·CNN·MSNBC·The Globe and Mail·Toronto Star·Scientific American·JAMA Network Open·The Atlantic