Volunteering in late life may protect the brain against cognitive decline and dementia – Science Daily [2023-07-20]

2023-08-20 — Mental Health — 1 min read

Volunteering in late life is associated with better cognitive function — specifically, better executive function and episodic memory. Those are the findings of a new study from UC Davis Health presented today (July 20) at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2023 in Amsterdam.

“We hope these new data encourage individuals of all ages and backgrounds to engage in local volunteering — not only to benefit their communities, but potentially their own cognitive and brain health,” said Donna McCullough, Alzheimer’s Association chief mission and field operations officer.

Volunteer activities — such as supporting educational, religious, health-related or other charitable organizations — allow older adults to be more physically active, increase social interaction and provide cognitive stimulation that may protect the brain. However, there has been a lack of information on the relationship between volunteering and cognitive function, especially in large, diverse populations.

Read more here:

Science Daily
July 20, 2023

U.S. father, son drove 2 days to Ontario just for ketchup chips – CTV News [2023-07-22]

2023-08-202023-08-20 — Miscellaneous — 1 min read

An American father-son duo drove for two days in an old army Jeep just to buy ketchup chips in Canada last week.

“We only crossed the border to buy the chips,” Rich Lieberman told CTV News Toronto on Saturday after buying 40 burgundy bags of Lay’s potato chips only available in Canada.

Lieberman and his 15-year-old son, Jacob, boarded their old army Jeep, which only travels approximately 70 kilometres per hour, in Virginia and set their sights on Niagara Falls, Ont.

“We joked it was a grocery run,” he said. “We had some time to kill before school starts.”

Read more here:

CTV News
July 22, 2023

Poilievre calls Niagara Falls home ‘tiny little shack,’ apologizes to tenant – CTV News [2023-07-21]

2023-08-19 — Housing — 1 min read

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he has apologized to a woman in Niagara Falls, Ont. for calling her home a “tiny little shack” in an attempt to illustrate high housing costs in the area.

“Housing costs under (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau have doubled, and it is not a global phenomenon, it is unique to Canada,” Poilievre said at a press conference Wednesday.

“I’ll give you just one example. It costs $550,000 for a tiny little shack,” he also said, before listing a specific address. “You can go check it out yourself.”

The home — a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1.5-story home on a half-acre lot — is on the market for $539,900.

“He called it a shack. A shack,” the house’s tenant, Asha Letourneau, told CHCH. “That was a little embarrassing, also because it’s not.”

According to CHCH, Letourneau works as a waitress and saw Poilievre’s comments online after working a night shift.

“It’s not the greatest house on the street, but it’s definitely not a shack,” she told CHCH.

Read more here:

CTV News
July 21, 2023

Brant County man swimming across Lake Ontario to raise awareness for mental health – CBC News [2023-07-20]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Mental Health — 1 min read

As he swims across Lake Ontario, swinging one arm over the other for 51 kilometres straight, Jason Kloss may seem alone — but he won’t be.

His grandfather, Dick Kloss, and friend, Mike Kuipers, both of whom died during the pandemic, will be in the Paris, Ont., man’s mind, pushing him to finish what he started.

“That hit me really hard,” Jason, 35, told CBC Hamilton in a phone interview, a few weeks ahead of his long-distance swim.

His goal is to not only cross the lake but also raise $50,000 toward the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also known as CAMH, in Toronto.

Jason said he’s been preparing by swimming every morning for up to three hours but he’s no stranger to lake swims.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 20, 2023

‘This is an investment’: City staff justify London, Ont. homeless hubs plan – Global News [2023-07-19]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Housing, Poverty — 1 min read

City councillors will debate the much-talked-about hub implementation plan to address London’s growing homelessness crisis in a special committee meeting next week.

A 46-page report details the steps taken so far, including community engagement, and what immediate steps are needed next, including a request from council to endorse the plan, including a capital budget of $10 million to renovate existing spaces for the first five hub locations.

Officials behind the hubs plan say the goal is to offer a space for those most acutely in need of a safe space to get them off the streets, stabilized, and eventually into housing.

“If we are able to provide folks with space to be inside, have health-care and have access to the resources they need, something can change,” said Sean Warren, a care facilitator with the London Intercommunity Health Centre and a co-chair of the hubs implementation table.

Read more here:

Global News
July 19, 2023

St. Thomas police dismantle homeless camp, frustrating some outreach workers – CBC News [2023-07-19]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Housing, Police, Poverty — 1 min read

St. Thomas has dismantled a well-established encampment where people had set up tents and built make-shift shelters, angering outreach workers who say the people there have nowhere else to go.

“What typically happens is they have to see if there’s room in the shelter or find another place to camp. The people who tend to camp like this are challenged with shelter stay, it’s not always safe for them, so they might be driven further into the woods, where their camps won’t be dismantled,” said Jackie Moore, the coordinator of The Nameless, a volunteer-run group that supports people experiencing homelessness.

“They create a community within themselves that meets hygienic standards and safety standards for themselves, and then something like this happens and they get told to move, but there’s no supports, nowhere else for them to go.”

St. Thomas police say the camp had to be taken down because it was unsafe and that workers with a mental health outreach team connected with the campers to provide them with supports.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 19, 2023

Who was behind London’s big banana giveaway? Now we know. – CBC News [2023-07-19]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Society — 2 min read

Months after spreading potassium and positivity across London, the man who gave out thousands of free bananas and sparked speculation from hundreds of Londoners has agreed to share his motivations.

Tyler Lockhart, 21, says his generosity wasn’t inspired by a thirst for fame or praise, but rather a firsthand understanding of what those in need are facing.

“I was living out of my car at the time and I saw all these people living on the street. I was reading the Bible a lot, and I wanted to be more Christlike,” said Lockhart. “I wanted to help those that needed the food right now. Not in a month, or two weeks.”

In April, CBC London published a story about Lockhart’s ‘bananthropy’ and the speculation and scavenger hunt that ensued in local online communities thanks to the mysterious nature of the generosity. One local group that focuses on giving to those in need became a hub for banana sightings, with dozens of posts showcasing the various locations Lockhart had dropped off stacks of free bananas.

Online speculation as to why someone was filling the streets with fruit ranged from undercover marketing campaigns to generosity.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 19, 2023

St. Thomas-Elgin YWCA to press forward with tiny homes despite denial of $8M grant – Global News [2023-07-18]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Housing — 1 min read

Despite not securing a multi-million-dollar grant, a St. Thomas, Ont., non-profit is still determined to get its tiny affordable homes project off the ground.

The YWCA St. Thomas-Elgin says its application for an $8-million grant with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for its rapid housing initiative was declined.

YWCA executive director Lindsay Rice tells Global News her CMHC rep told the St. Thomas team they had a very competitive bid, but there was one category where they lagged behind others.

“CMHC allocates additional points to the communities they believe are in the deepest need for affordable housing,” said Rice. “Unfortunately, we just weren’t awarded those points in that area even though we know how much of a housing crisis St. Thomas is faced with right now.”

Read more here:

Global News
July 18, 2023

What you need to know about London’s proposed homeless hubs – CBC News [2023-07-18]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Housing, Poverty — 1 min read

The much anticipated plan to help support the homeless population in London, Ont. will include 24/7 wrap around services in hubs that will cost $2.7 million each to run.

A new 46-page report to be discussed by councillors next week outlines the details of a plan that would see as many as 15 hubs open in the city with the aim of getting people into supportive housing.

The goal is to open three to five hubs by the end of 2023 in different neighbourhoods, excluding Old East Village, Dundas Place and Richmond Row.

“The system will support the highest acuity Londoners to move safely inside, help them get stabilized, wrap around them with supports, connect them to the right housing and help them stay housed,” the report said.

“Every interaction is an active and intentional effort to meet people where they’re at, supporting an individual’s next steps toward housing.”

Read more here:

CBC News
July 18, 2023

Arrest the homeless? London, Ont. councillor promotes controversial plan – Global News [2023-07-18]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Housing, Mental Health, Police, Poverty, Society — 1 min read

A city councillor in London, Ont., is coming under fire after sharing a plan to address homelessness that suggested providing support that people need to get off the streets but arresting anyone who refuses assistance.

Ward 4 Coun. Susan Stevenson tweeted “London could be first” followed by an emoji face with hearts around it and a link to a blog post from Michael Smerconish, a political commentator in the United States.

In the post, Smerconish writes that shelter should be offered to those who live on the streets on the condition that they accept drug counseling if they are addicted, mental health services if they have mental health issues, and must work or be looking for work if able to do so.

“If they don’t do these things and return to the streets despite the availability of shelter, they can and should be arrested, for they will not be homeless. No one should be allowed to live in the public spaces of our cities,” he writes.

Read more here:

Global News
July 18, 2023

London’s ‘game changer’ mental health-care model inspires revisioned plan in Windsor – CBC News [2023-07-17]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Mental Health — 1 min read

Just two hours up Highway 401 from Windsor, Ont., there’s a mental health and addictions crisis centre that is a “game changer” for the London community.

Now, a Windsor hospital is eyeing the same model as it plans to re-submit a proposal to the province after its original one was turned down.

Since 2015, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thames Valley branch has operated a 24/7 crisis centre where anyone with mental health or addictions issues can walk in, 365 days a year.

And in 2020, Ontario legislation allowed paramedics to drop off those patients, giving them access to specialized services in one location.

The goal was to alleviate overburdened emergency rooms and gets first responders back on the road faster.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 17, 2023

Real estate developers say homelessness, drugs hinder downtown London’s full-scale revival – CBC News [2023-07-17]

2023-08-19 — Housing, Mental Health, Society, Substance Use — 2 min read

Real estate developers say homelessness, drugs and the prevalence of people suffering from severe mental illness is holding back the full-scale revival of downtown London by making it a hard sell for prospective office tenants as the core looks to turn the corner after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The downtown has long been the beating heart of London, Ont., where street life moved to the pulse of rush hour traffic and the nine-to-five crowd, whose rhythms made the neighbourhood’s tangle of offices, shops and restaurants teem with life for 10 hours a day, five days a week.

But then the virus upended everything, throwing off the core’s rhythm and gutting its office sector when remote work suddenly replaced the commute, accelerating the decadeslong flight of office workers to the suburbs while doubling the city’s homeless population.

Since the virus peaked, the downtown still bears the scars. Empty offices and shops are hidden behind colourfully-painted plywood facades — public art that stands in sharp contrast to the nearby scenes of urban squalor where the unsheltered and the drug-addled lie slumped in the streets as passersby pretend not to notice.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 17, 2023

Former Ontario inmates say complaints system is broken after docs reveal medical concerns, abuse allegations – CBC News [2023-07-14]

2023-08-192023-08-19 — Corrections — 1 min read

A cancer survivor says he wasn’t given access to pain medication.

A man who lost 42 pounds says he couldn’t get the right food for a medical condition.

Another man felt like he was going to die after staying in the back of a hot van for hours during the summer.

A person reported being sexually assaulted.

These are just some of the complaints by inmates at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre that were lodged in 2022 to a provincial phone line. It’s the same facility where prisoners went on hunger strikes in 2020, 2021 and earlier this year, due to what some have called poor conditions inside the maximum-security jail.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 14, 2023

Thousands of Canadian drug users dying as government red tape limits help, advocates say – CBC News [2023-07-13]

2023-07-132023-07-13 — Substance Use — 2 min read

The historic core of Cobourg, Ont., brims with small-town charm. There are stately buildings, quaint shops and old-fashioned iron lampposts decorated with hanging flower baskets. The local business authority even coined a hashtag, “#8BlocksofAwesome.”

But on Friday nights, just steps off the postcard main street, another side of life comes into view. Volunteers are setting up camp chairs and folding tables in an alleyway and laying out supplies, including alcohol swabs, plastic pipes and naloxone kits to be used in case of overdoses. All for an unsanctioned, pop-up safe site for local drug users, specifically geared to people who inhale rather than inject.

“It just seemed that there was more and more need, and more and more people dying,” said Ashley Smoke, one of the organizers. “There’s just so many people that are struggling and no one to help.”

Cobourg, home to 20,000 on the shore of Lake Ontario east of Toronto, has had a dozen fatal overdoses over the past 18 months. The nearest official safe consumption site is in Peterborough, almost 60 kilometres away. And like all government-funded harm reduction facilities in Ontario — and most of the rest of the country — it doesn’t permit drug smoking, just injection, oral and nasal use.

Smoke said the cost of not having supervised spaces for those who inhale drugs can be seen in Canada’s near-record overdose numbers.

“The consequences have been death. A lot of people have lost their lives. There’s just so much loss and grief,” they said.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 13, 2023

I became a mental health nurse despite my doubts. It was the best decision I ever made – CBC News [2023-07-07]

2023-07-072023-07-07 — Mental Health — 1 min read

Crisis. It’s a state I’ve become all too familiar with as a mental health nurse, but it was still unknown territory the day my patient threatened to kill me.

It was an evening shift almost two years ago. I had recently joined the psychiatry unit at the Montreal General Hospital and was finding my footing.

While walking the halls and passing out patients’ medications, I suddenly felt a presence close behind me.

A chill ran through me as I whirled around and came face to face with a young woman — a patient of mine who was prone to sudden and violent outbursts.

Her hands were balled into fists and raised toward me. She began hollering that she was going to kill me.

I was cornered and alone. Fighting my natural fight-or-flight response, I knew I needed to push aside any preconceived thoughts I had about people in crisis and attempt to de-escalate the situation.

Read more here:

CBC News
July 7, 2023

Happy Canada Day!

2023-07-012023-07-01 — Music — 1 min read

Happy Canada Day!

Why Doctors Are Moving Away from BMI – Psychology Today [2023-06-28]

2023-06-282023-06-28 — Health & Fitness, Miscellaneous — 1 min read

If you’ve been to a doctor’s office or fitness center in recent years, you’ve likely had your Body Mass Index calculated. The BMI formula uses a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. The resulting number is classified into one of four categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. These labels are prolific in the U.S. medical system. At one point, BMI classification was even used to establish eligibility for COVID vaccines.

Earlier this month, the American Medical Association voted to move away from using BMI as a measurement to assess weight and health. The calculation is problematic for many reasons. To understand why, you must first understand its history.

Read more here:

Psychology Today
June 28, 2023

People with Mental Illness Are More Likely to Be Abused by Law Enforcement – Psychology Today [2023-06-28]

2023-06-282023-06-28 — Mental Health, Police — 1 min read

“Every time the police come after me they make me madder,” says Richard Saville-Smith, Ph.D.

Saville-Smith is an independent scholar in the United Kingdom who writes about madness. He lives with madness himself. In early June his wife was worried about him and she phoned the physician, who then phoned the police. “The police officers were female and they were so fit they could run after me. I told them I didn’t want to be locked up,” says Saville-Smith. “My environment was safe for me. I had my own bed, I knew how everything worked.”

They wrestled him into submission. “They cracked my rib and gave me abrasions all over my arm. There’s still nerve damage to my fingers,” he says. After an altercation with the two police officers, Saville-Smith was involuntarily hospitalized.

Read more here:

Psychology Today
June 28, 2023

Indigenous Justice and a New Path for Canada’s Prisons – The Tyee [2023-06-26]

2023-06-262023-06-26 — Corrections, Indigenous — 1 min read

When I asked Boyd Peters, a Sts’ailes First Nation member and BC First Nations Justice Council director, about the effects of long-term incarceration on Indigenous people, his brow furrowed. He exhaled and looked down before responding.

“Nobody should have to go through that,” he said.

But more and more Indigenous people are going “through that” — living in Canadian prisons despite federal government commitments “to reset the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the justice system.” From 2009 to 2018, as the general prison population expanded by only one per cent, the Indigenous prisoner population increased by 43 per cent.

A recent report by B.C.’s Prisoners’ Legal Services, “Decarceration Through Self-determination: Ending the Mass Incarceration of Indigenous People in Canada,” suggests a better way to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons. The report’s proposal seems radical, but it potentially realizes Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s goal of reducing the “extreme overrepresentation of Indigenous individuals as incarcerated offenders” while honouring the right to Indigenous self-determination in Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act.

Read more here:

The Tyee
June 26, 2023

City of Barrie backs down on plan to ban giving food to homeless people on its property – CBC News [2023-06-21]

2023-06-212023-06-21 — Poverty — 1 min read

The city of Barrie, Ont., has backed away from proposed bylaws that would have made it illegal to distribute food, literature, clothes, tents and tarps to unhoused people on public property.

At a meeting on Wednesday night, council decided unanimously to refer bylaws 67 and 68 back to staff. The matter is expected to return to a general committee meeting later this year.

“There should be zero fear out there that a bylaw officer or a peace officer is going to come and ask you not to give water to someone who needs it,” Mayor Alex Nuttall told council chambers.

Coun. Jim Harris, who represents Ward 8, said the intent of the bylaws was not to prevent people from helping unhoused people.

“Charitable acts of kindness, giving, are central to our community and we do not want to punish that. That’s not the intent,” Harris said.

Read more here:

CBC News
June 21, 2023

Edmonton MP to file official grievance about Taylor Swift tour’s lack of Canadian shows – Global News [2023-06-21]

2023-06-212023-06-21 — Society — 1 min read

Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux hopes Taylor Swift’s lack of Canadian stops on her Eras Tour is not about bad blood.

In several posts on his social media accounts, the Conservative politician indicated he would follow Australia’s lead and file a grievance with Parliament to encourage Taylor Swift to add some Canadian dates to her Eras Tour.

“It has come to my attention that despite much anticipation, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has neglected to include any Canadian dates or locations as she released her international dates, which includes stops throughout Asia and Europe,” Jeneroux wrote in a letter dated and signed on Wednesday, June 21.

“Similar to what’s being considered in Australia, I would like to file an official grievance within Parliament on behalf of all Swifties in Canada for her and her team to reconsider,” the letter continued.

Read more here:

Global News
June 21, 2023