Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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On mental health, words come easily. Action less so
Sunday, March 8th, 2020
It’s been almost exactly 10 years… since a select committee report on mental health titled “Navigating the Journey to Wellness: The Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Plan for Ontarians” was issued… Chief among the committee’s eventual recommendations… was creation of Mental Health and Addictions Ontario, an umbrella organization to ensure that a single body was responsible for designing, managing and co-ordinating the system, as well as a “core basket of services in all regions” and “access to a system of navigators.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health
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Ontario revamps mental health services
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020
Ontario’s plan to revamp mental health services with a new agency to focus on cutting long wait times is just talk unless it’s backed up with “substantial and immediate” funding of almost $400 million in Premier Doug Ford’s spring budget, mental health groups warn… Her plan includes a mental health Centre of Excellence, to function like Cancer Care Ontario has done over the years to make the provincial cancer system more responsive, as a “single point of accountability” to improve wait times and boost service levels.
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
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The future of medicare shouldn’t be left up to the courts
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020
Most countries with universal health care have a mix of public and private provision and payment of care… Canada actually has more private spending and a greater dependence on private insurance than virtually every other country with universal health care… for prescription drugs, dental care, vision care, hearing aids, home care, long-term care and much more. Surely many of these services are “medically necessary,” but public access and funding is greatly lacking. Ultimately, we need to decide what is covered by medicare and what isn’t.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
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StatsCan report analyzes cannabis use since legalization
Friday, February 28th, 2020
A new Statistics Canada report on cannabis says use of the substance is up, riding in a vehicle with a driver who has consumed is down, and more Canadians are obtaining their cannabis from legal sources… More frequent users are at the highest risk of problems… Early indications from this study suggests use among Canadian youth has not increased. However, cannabis use at older ages and overall prevalence did increase.
Tags: Health, mental Health, youth
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‘They have failed us.’ Parents of kids with rare diseases feel let down by Ford government
Thursday, February 27th, 2020
Families needing revolutionary and expensive drugs to beat the symptoms of rare diseases like cystic fibrosis say Health Minister Christine Elliott has let them down after championing improved access to medications when the PCs were in opposition just a few years ago… Elliott said she has been trying to speed the federal and provincial approval processes for the drugs and to get them covered in Ontario… In 2014, Elliott said “we have to be able to find the money” to pay for such drugs by restructuring the health-care system.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, youth
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Adopting a U.S. plan for easing hallway medicine
Wednesday, February 26th, 2020
There is no hallway medicine in America in part because of skilled nursing facilities (SNF’s), which are designed to rehabilitate frail seniors after an acute hospital stay and reduce the need for ALC designation. SNF’s employ nurses, support workers, physios and physio assistants to provide care that emphasizes reconditioning weakened seniors after their acute hospital stays… This solution would be more cost effective than maintaining deconditioned patients in acute hospitals or waiting to build long-term care beds.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, housing
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Canadians with mental illness deserve access to medical assistance in dying
Tuesday, February 18th, 2020
There is no evidence vulnerable patients are being pushed into assisted death against their will. If anything, the contrary is true. MAID has become an option for the elite, while people with physical and mental disabilities have repeatedly had to turn to the courts to have their right to choose respected… We don’t insist that patients with terminal cancer content themselves with hopes and prayers, and we shouldn’t expect people with intractable mental illness to do so either.
Tags: ideology, mental Health, rights
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Canada lags behind peers in number of doctors per capita: report
Saturday, February 1st, 2020
Canada lags well behind all but the United States among 11 of the wealthiest countries when it comes to the number of doctors per capita, a new report indicates… Canadians have 2.7 practising physicians for every 1,000 people, compared with 2.6 for the U.S. Norway has the most at 4.8. At the same time, Canadians are average in terms of their physician visits each year… [with] higher than average hospital stays combined with a lower than average per capita number of hospital beds
Tags: Health, mental Health, standard of living
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Is medically assisted dying a choice if persons with disabilities aren’t given the necessary supports to live?
Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
MAiD without a “foreseeable death” restriction, combined with significant shortcomings in health and social care for persons with disabilities, raises questions about what it means to live a dignified life, and for whom — and what role the Canadian Government has in supporting people with disabilities in the context of legalized MAiD. It raises issues of systemic marginalization and violence as persons with disabilities are not adequately protected or valued.
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, rights, standard of living
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We can’t afford to skimp on mental health services
Tuesday, January 28th, 2020
The stagnant model of care we continue to rely on didn’t even work 10 years ago, when far fewer people perceived mental health problems as legitimate and treatable… As the Hon. Michael Wilson, the late chair of the MHCC, once said: funding for mental health must include the “latitude for proving the sound economics of creative approaches.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, standard of living
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