Over the weekend, I read the first article about the opioid crisis that made any sense to me. It was published in Scientific American last week and explained why so many of the strategies that we are using to combat the rising rates of opioid overdose have been ineffective in curbing the rate of overdose …
There are six million young Canadians starting school this week. From busy, excited little kindergartners to oh, so bored almost adults in their finally final year, yellow buses and slower streets will signal the end of summer as nothing else does. At the psychiatric hospital where I work, we have four classrooms, all part of …
The holiday season has officially started. I have begun to make a list of the families in my practice that should receive grocery vouchers so that they can afford food for the holidays. I also make a list for the teenagers who are living on their own. I confirm addresses and watch young people’s faces …
Today from 12:00 to 1:00 I will participate in the World Suicide Prevention Day Facebook Know What to Do Event. The event will be hosted on the Facebook page of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). As well as answering participants’ questions, I have a short presentation to make on talking to your child …
The debate on safe, supervised injection sites is intensifying in Ottawa, with a lot of media interest. On Tuesday morning I was interviewed on CBC Ottawa Morning regarding this issue. I was pleased with how fairly I was interviewed by Robyn Bresnahan. She really elicited all the concerns in this complicated issue. Here is the …
This is Mental Illness Awareness Week 2015 and I want to talk about my physician heroes for mental health. The doctor heroes of my life and work this week are my colleagues at The Royal, the tertiary care psychiatric hospital in Ottawa that serves Eastern Ontario. In this especially difficult time, when doctors are facing …
As an Ontario Medical Association Board Director, I am receiving many letters from physicians concerned about the impact the government’s cuts to physician services could have on patient care. I want to share this letter with you since it underlines the degree to which communities could be affected. I have known Dr. Niznick, an …
Today I read two stories about government assistance for babies and the families that care for them. After reading these two reports, I found myself thinking that Canada does not welcome its newest citizens as well as it could. I will start with the story of how Finland welcomes babies and it was posted on …
Yesterday, the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne summarized the results of Bridging the Gap, a report on Ottawa’s community well-being. The report can be found here: http://communityhealthandwellbeing.org/sites/default/files/Bridging%20the%20Gap.pdf and this is the link to Payne’s article: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/taking-the-measure-of-fat-city-ottawa-affluent-and-troubled-report-finds A key aspect of this report, which uses the Canadian Index of Wellbeing as a measure, is that, in the …
