Posts Tagged ‘mental Health’

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Ontario expanding jails by several hundred beds to deal with overflowing institutions

Tuesday, June 11th, 2024

As of September 30, 2023, there was an average of 8,889 people in provincial jails, well over the 7,848-person capacity. Overall, the jails were operating at 113 per cent capacity at that time. Premier Doug Ford pledged in March to build more jails to deal with an influx of inmates, the vast majority of whom are innocent and awaiting trial. Ontario will reopen two intermittent detention centres inside Toronto and London jails that had been closed in order to add up to 430 beds by 2026.

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Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »


Province urged to take time to rethink flawed post-secondary education bill

Friday, May 10th, 2024

Bill 166 is being touted as a potential law to improve transparency and student mental health, and to combat racism and hate on the province’s post-secondary campuses… The provincial government is using a manufactured crisis as an excuse for increased ill-informed ministerial interference… What we do need is a real solution to the real crisis created by government through more than a decade of funding cuts and squeezes.

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Ontario pays $320K in legal fight over its cancellation of basic income program

Monday, April 22nd, 2024

After battling five years against a class-action certification process, the Ontario government has paid $320,000 to the law firm spearheading a lawsuit against the Ford government over its decision to cancel a guaranteed basic income pilot project… One-third of respondents reported that the pilot gave them enough money to go to school. One in five said it funded their transportation to work. Almost three-quarters said they started eating better and nearly three in five said they managed to improve their housing. A large majority felt less stress, anxiety and depression.

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Posted in Social Security History | No Comments »


Cutting ER wait times? There’s an app for that

Saturday, March 30th, 2024

One prescription for improving the health of the urgent care sector: AI and virtual emergency departments are cutting wait times in the real ones… Researchers programmed AI into an app to determine which patients are most urgently in need of care… [plus] online emergency department bookings… with a list of criteria to determine if their condition allows for a short wait before receiving care… [and the use of] data points to boost staff at more demanding times.

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The perverse logic of social assistance

Monday, March 4th, 2024

In Ontario, single adults who are unhoused… receive $343 per month for basic needs, and $0 for shelter. That works out to about $11 per day. No one can say with a straight face that $11 per day is a program designed to help people. How is it possible for someone to get by, let alone to get back on their feet, with so little? … It doesn’t function to bolster their well-being, or stop them from falling further into poverty. Instead, it responds to a person who has lost their home by making their life even harder.

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I had to turn another patient away: It doesn’t have to be that way

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

It’s actually physically impossible for a solo family doctor to keep up with all the needed acute, chronic and preventive care, let alone look after their many results and consult notes while running what amounts to a small business… Primary care teams are urgently needed to share these responsibilities and make the most of family doctors’ skills… also needed is a clear vision and a steadfast commitment to reconstructing primary care.

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Can Ontario Fix the Shortage of Personal Support Workers?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024

The Ontario government earmarked almost $5 billion in funding over four years to help long-term care homes hire and retain care staff. It’s since added additional millions in incentives to attract thousands to become personal support workers over the next few years… Podcast video Episode: Can New Incentives Help Attract PSWs in Ontario?

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The crisis hitting small-town Ontario

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

Communities across the province are grappling with overdoses and appealing for more resources to deal with the crisis… According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, the opioid death rate is three times higher in northern than southern Ontario… While we often hear complaints about the lack of sufficient treatment and harm reduction facilities in large cities like Toronto, smaller communities are lucky if they have any at all.

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Why the surge in medically assisted deaths?

Tuesday, February 6th, 2024

… assisted deaths in Canada grew by an average of 31.1 per cent each year between 2019 and 2022… of those who received MAID in 2022, 17 per cent cited loneliness or isolation as one cause of their suffering… Since people with mental illness are at high risk of homelessness, this could exacerbate the difficulty they have in accessing critical health services, including those of a palliative nature.

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The risks of ending safer supply drugs programs

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

21 of 24 federally funded safer supply programs are in jeopardy, as their contracts will expire in March. And with just two months until then, the feds have given no indication that they’ll renew their commitment to any of them. Ottawa’s silence on the matter is all the more disturbing given the recent, dramatic increase in overdose deaths — and the mounting evidence in support of safer supply.

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


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