Changes needed to ensure safer, more resilient RCMP, union mental-health report says

Health Care

February 28, 2024admin

Changes needed to ensure safer, more resilient RCMP, union mental-health report says

OTTAWA — The union representing front-line Mounties is urging the RCMP to move beyond “patchwork solutions” to ensure the mental health of officers amid concerns they face increasing risks to their well-being.

In a new report, the National Police Federation calls on the RCMP to fully implement its employee well-being strategy, institute regular psychological health screening and make it simpler to access mental-health supports.

The federation released the report, Behind the Badge, at a breakfast meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday.

The report says RCMP members are confronted daily with a myriad of stressors, risks and emotionally taxing situations that invariably take a toll on their psychological health.

It highlights the fact the very nature of their profession exposes them to violence, trauma, high-pressure situations and a relentless demand for vigilance.

The report says this is compounded by everyday sources of stress, such as negative comments from the public, fatigue, staff shortages, lack of resources and bureaucratic red tape.

RCMP officers face stigma related to psychological health issues and a lack of comprehensive and accessible mental-health services and supports, the report adds.

Over time, these factors have been shown to accumulate and lead to an array of mental-health challenges — from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression to anxiety and a heightened risk of suicidal behaviour, it says.

“The urgent need for increased government investment in mental-health guidance, training, and treatment programs for police officers, especially within the RCMP, is paramount.”

The report includes the results of a survey by the federation and the University of Regina of a representative sample of RCMP members from June 2022 to February 2023.

It found members were six times as likely as the general population to screen positive for any mental-health disorder. Such figures are considered indicators, not actual diagnoses that require clinical interviews with

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Health Information

February 25, 2024admin

Respiratory illness spiked kids’ hospital admissions: report

Last winter, parents and health-care workers across Canada sounded the alarm over an apparent increase in the number of children hospitalized with respiratory infections.

While parents said they were struggling to treat their children’s symptoms amid shortages of over-the-counter cough and cold medicine, doctors warned that pediatric admissions for respiratory illness were pushing hospitals to their limits.

Now, a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) bears out those stories with new data that shows hospitals did, in fact, see a significant increase in the number of stays due to respiratory illnesses among pediatric patients during the 2022-23 fiscal year.

In fact, CIHI’s data shows hospitalizations for seasonal flu among children four and under spiked by 7,306 per cent, increasing to 2,444 cases in 2022-23 from only 33 cases the previous year. The federal fiscal year in Canada begins on April 1 and ends on March 31 the following year.

“Last year was unprecedented for all pediatric hospitals in this country and highlighted key gaps in our system,” Dr. Lindy Samson, chief of staff and chief medical officer at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), stated in a media release.

“We know from experience that viral seasons will continue to affect our young patients, and this is why it is so important that we invest in our pediatric health system and adopt public health measures to help reduce the risks.”

Some health-care professionals attributed the spike in respiratory infections last year to the fact that physical distancing and public health restrictions during the pandemic kept most children from being infected with viruses like RSV and influenza for two years. Once those restrictions eased, the viruses began to circulate again, and some children whose bodies were inexperienced fighting them became very

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Health Care

February 23, 2024admin

Seniors in rural B.C. have poorer access to health care, housing: report

A new report shows that seniors living in rural parts of B.C. are experiencing a lack of resources and support.

The Office of the Seniors Advocate says individuals ages 65 or above who live in rural areas have poorer access to health care, lower average incomes and fewer options when it comes to long-term care or affordable housing.

“Seniors everywhere experience difficulties related to aging but as I’ve travelled the province and examined the data, it’s clear that people who live far from urban centres face even greater obstacles because they have fewer resources to support them,” said Isobel Mackenzie, BC Seniors Advocate.

The report also indicates rural parts of the province have a proportionately higher and faster growing population of seniors, and with fewer resources and services available when compared to seniors who live in urban areas.

“We face a geographical challenge where 86 per cent of our population is concentrated in dense urban cores on 4 per cent of our land mass,” said Mackenzie.

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“The vastness or rural B.C. makes accessing supports by aging seniors more difficult because critical services are spread over a large, sparsely populated area.”

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Seniors make up 25 per cent of B.C.’s rural population, compared to urban B.C. where seniors are 19 per cent of the population. It is expected that by 2032, seniors will be 29 per cent of the province’s rural population, compared to 21 per cent in urban B.C.

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The report also found that 17 per cent of rural seniors do not have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, compared to 13 per cent of urban seniors.

“While I am inspired and heartened by the compassionate,

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Health Information

February 20, 2024admin

More doctors alone can’t fix B.C.’s health-care system: report

British Columbia has more family doctors per capita than it did 40 years ago, according to a new report, but its lead author says trying to find one or get an appointment can still feel as difficult as competing for tickets to Taylor Swift’s highly sought-after Eras Tour.

B.C. has 270 doctors for every 100,000 people in 2022, up from 162 doctors per capita in 1976, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shared in a new report from charity Generation Squeeze on Thursday.

It’s tied with Nova Scotia for the highest rate in Canada, according to the report, and well above the national average of 244 doctors per 100,000.

The data may be surprising given close to one million British Columbians are estimated to be without a family doctor, says co-author Dr. Paul Kershaw, but he says it indicates that hiring more doctors isn’t a silver bullet to reduce wait times and improve patient care and outcomes.

“Medical care doesn’t even account for a quarter of what makes us healthy … our health begins where we’re born, grow, live, work and age,” said Kershaw, who is also the founder of non-profit Generation Squeeze.

“And that means when we can’t access affordable and safe homes, when we can’t access quality child care … those are the things that are going to make us get injured or fall sick and have us needing more time in our clinics and our emergency rooms.”

Kershaw says while there are more family doctors practising in B.C. now than 40 years ago, more and more people need their services.

A row of people wearing stethoscopes and scrubs. — The study’s co-author, Dr. Paul Kershaw, says focusing on investments in health care alone is not the solution, but that policymakers should fund other drivers of population health, like housing and child care.

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Health Care

February 19, 2024admin

With Ontario’s senior population about to spike, report predicts big demand for home care

The expected rapid growth in Ontario's population of seniors means the province will need a substantial increase in the number of home care workers just to maintain current levels of service, says a new report coming Monday. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images - image credit) — The expected rapid growth in Ontario’s population of seniors means the province will need a substantial increase in the number of home care workers just to maintain current levels of service, says a new report coming Monday. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images – image credit)

Ontario will see a spike in demand for home-care workers over the next few years as its population of seniors increases sharply, according to a new report by health economists.

The report, to be released Monday, includes demographic projections that suggest both the over-65 and over-75 populations will rise at notably faster annual rates in Ontario in the next five years than they will at any time in the next two decades.

Combining that demographic trend with evidence showing Ontarians use more health-care resources as they age, the report says the province will need to see a substantial increase in personal support workers (PSWs) and other home-care staff just to maintain current levels of service.

The report, called The Impact of Ontario’s Aging Population on the Home Care Sector, comes from two economics professors at McMaster University — Arthur Sweetman and Boris Kralj — and was commissioned by Home Care Ontario, the umbrella group representing home care agencies.

“We need substantial growth in all the workers, all the types of occupations that work in home care,” Sweetman said in an interview.

“It’s not something that’s going to happen way down the road. We are at the peak years right now,” he said.

Sue VanderBent is president and CEO of Home Care Ontario, an umbrella group of agencies that provide home care.

‘The senior tsunami is not something that’s happening 10 or 15 years from now, it’s happening today,’ said Sue VanderBent, president and CEO of Home Care Ontario, an umbrella group of agencies that provide home care.

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Health Information

February 10, 2024admin

Make all health records paperless, accessible to patients digitally by 2028: report

Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press

Published Tuesday, January 30, 2024 10:08PM EST

When 30-year-old Greg Price had testicular cancer in 2011, his journey through the health-care system was plagued by a lack of communication between primary care doctors and specialists, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment.

Previously healthy and athletic, Price died at age 31 – just over a year after a routine physical to renew his pilot’s licence found that a tube in his testicles known as the epididymis had thickened, which can be a symptom of testicular cancer.

Over the course of that year, Price, who lived in Acme, Alta., had lab tests, saw several doctors at walk-in clinics and was referred to three different urologists but none of them had the full picture of Price’s symptoms.

At one point, a primary care physician faxed a referral to a urologist’s office but the urologist was away so there was no response.

“Greg’s medical history was scattered in bits and pieces across different charts in the places where he had sought treatment,” says a report issued Tuesday by Public Policy Forum, a non-profit group that brings together experts to tackle and advise on significant public issues.

The report cites Price’s experience as a tragic example of out-of-date health records management in Canada and failure to harness digital technology to ensure a patient’s complete health data are available to all members of their care team.

The forum says it is “sounding the alarm about Canada’s chronic, subpar performance on data, the vital currency of a digital-age system.”

The report calls for all health records to be paperless and digitally accessible to all members of a patient’s care team by 2028, noting that a first step

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Health Care

January 21, 2024admin

4.4M uninsured Canadians excluded from dental program: report

The report’s author estimates it would cost $1.45 billion to extend coverage to people whose income exceeds the $90,000 per year cap in 2025

The Canadian Press

Laura Osman

Published Jan 17, 2024 • Last updated 3 days ago • 3 minute read

A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows millions of uninsured Canadians will be left out of the new federal dental program because their family income is too high. Photo by Richard Buchan /THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — Millions of uninsured Canadians will be left out of the new federal dental program because their family income is too high, says a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Enrolment began last month for a new federal benefits program, which was developed as a condition of a political pact between the Liberal government and the NDP.

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Health Care

December 30, 2023admin

Over 400K Albertans waiting for health care: report

Millions are on waitlists to receive health care services across Canada, according to a recent report, and while Alberta’s numbers are lower than a few provinces, thousands still face long waits to get the care they need.

Dom Lucyk, communications director with SecondStreet.org, says the report released on Boxing Day and compiled by the think tank shows a little more than 3.1 million Canadians are waiting for surgery, a diagnostic scan or to see a specialist, and it’s “unacceptable.”

In Alberta, that’s just over 415,000 people waiting for surgeries, diagnostic testing, and for a specialist. Ontario has around 900,000 people on a waitlist, while Quebec has around 1,350,000.

The think tank says the number of Albertans on waitlists rose from 2022, with 1,000 more people waiting for surgeries and more than 6,000 in the queue for diagnostic testing.

“The sheer numbers show that there are thousands and thousands of stories of people that are waiting too long,” Lucyk told CityNews.

He says some people die while waiting and others end up with conditions that are too late to treat adequately.

“Not everyone who is on the waitlist has a story that dramatic. Sometimes it’s something like a hip surgery, where you wait a year — you wait in pain – which is not something you should have to do and your life isn’t threatened — but still, quality of life is important to consider as well.”

However, those numbers are a conservative estimate.

“The true total is actually, probably over five million. We did some conservative estimates because a lot of areas didn’t give us complete data,” he said.

“Alberta actually did, one of the few provinces that gave us waitlist numbers in all three categories, so kudos to them for transparency.”

This follows a recent report from SecondStreet.org,

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Health Advice

December 6, 2023admin

The State of Fashion 2024 report

Storm clouds are gathering, but the experience of recent years shows how the fashion industry may ride out the challenges ahead. In 2022, the industry again showed its resilience, almost equaling the record economic profit of 2021, the McKinsey Global Fashion Index shows. Echoing the pattern of the previous year, the luxury sector outperformed, with a 36 percent rise in economic profit that offset weakness in other segments. Yet even the non-luxury sector was ahead of its long-term average. Strong margin performance meant the industry in 2022 achieved more than double the economic profit than in all years between 2011 and 2020, except for one.

In 2023, the industry faced challenges that were both persistent and deepening. On a regional basis, Europe and the United States saw slow growth throughout the year, while China’s initially strong performance faded in the second half. Though the luxury segment initially fared well, it too began to feel the effects of weaker demand in the latter part of the year, leading to slowing sales and uneven performance.

Looking toward 2024, the most prominent sentiment among fashion industry leaders is uncertainty, reflecting the prospect of subdued economic growth, persistent inflation, and weak consumer confidence. Against this backdrop, businesses will be challenged to identify pockets of value and unlock new drivers of performance.

According to McKinsey’s analysis of fashion forecasts, the global industry will post top-line growth of 2 to 4 percent in 2024 (exhibit), with regional and country-level variations. Once again, the luxury segment is expected to generate the biggest share of economic profit. However, even there, companies will be challenged by the tough economic environment. The segment is forecast to grow globally by 3 to 5 percent, compared with 5 to 7 percent in 2023, as consumers rein in spending after a postpandemic surge.

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Health Care

August 17, 2023admin

Niagara region needs close to 2,000 more health care workers and over 200 more hospital beds: Report

A new report suggests that patient care will become more strained in Niagara hospitals unless the regional health care system receives a significant boost in staffing and hospital beds.

The Hospital Crisis: No Capacity, No Plan, No End, released by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), suggests that hospitals across the province must increase staffing and capacity by 22 per cent each to meet patient needs–a target it says the provincial government is falling short of.

The report says Niagara’s health care system needs to add 1,739 additional staff and 223 more beds over the next four years. The union says the province is not on track to meet those targets, stating that staffing and capacity across Ontario will grow by less than one per cent a year over the next four years.

“We are very concerned about the growing crisis in our public hospitals, which is deeply harmful for both workers and patients. Unfortunately, the government’s plan is completely inadequate to meet the needs of a growing and aging population,” said Michael Hurley, the president of OCHU/CUPE, in a statement.

“At this rate, we are heading towards a much deeper crisis.”

The union represents 40,000 hospital workers across the province.

According to the report, Stats Canada data indicate that hospital staffing levels have only increased by 0.4 per cent since 2020. Staffing and bed shortages in Ontario hospitals were making headlines before the pandemic struck in 2020, with patients in busy hospitals reporting waiting hours–and even days–on stretchers in hallways.

Staff shortages have been reported frequently over the past two years, with health-care workers often citing heavy workloads and frozen wages as reasons for leaving the profession. The staff shortage, which is impacting hospitals across the province, has led to more

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