Charles Cunningham Bio
Dr. Cunningham is a psychologist at McMaster Children’s Hospital and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University, where he holds the Jack Laidlaw Chair in Patient-Centred Health Care.
Dr. Cunningham developed and has conducted research examining the utilization, cost effectiveness, and outcome of large group, community-based COPE programs for parents of children with disruptive behavior disorders. He has been involved in the development and evaluation of school-based student-mediated conflict resolution programs involving students in the reduction of playground violence and is a co-investigator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Foundation Community-University Research Alliance grant to develop more effective bullying and violence prevention programs. He also led the development of the Brief Child and Family Phone Interview, a computerized children’s mental health screening and outcome measurement tool used by the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.
Dr. Cunningham’s current research, which is funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, uses consumer preference modeling strategies to involve parents, young adults, and professionals in the design of more effective mental health services. He is also involved in longitudinal studies funded by the Ontario Mental Health Foundation which focus on the social and psychophysiological correlates of the early anxiety disorders selective mutism and social phobia.
