Read more here:
Psychology Today
June 21, 2023
Taking daytime naps may help maintain brain health as we age, according to a new study. However, prior research has shown that excess napping can also be harmful.
Habitual napping was linked with larger total brain volume, which is associated with a lower risk of dementia and other diseases, according to researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of the Republic of Uruguay.
On average, the difference in brain volume between nappers and non-nappers was equivalent to 2.5 to 6.5 years of aging, researchers said.
“Our findings suggest that, for some people, short daytime naps may be a part of the puzzle that could help preserve the health of the brain as we get older,” said senior author Victoria Garfield, a senior research fellow at UCL, in a statement.
Read more here:
CTV News
June 20, 2023
Simmering tensions about how the workload is being divided between councillors boiled over at city hall.
On Tuesday, the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee was tasked with nominating two councillors to sit on the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority, and another to join the Lower Thames Conservation Authority.
Typically, councillors nominate themselves for appointments to fill vacancies on outside agencies, boards, and commissions.
But Coun. Skylar Franke took an unexpected approach that triggered nervous laughter from her colleagues— nominating Ward 10 Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen who was absent.
Read more here:
CTV News
June 21, 2023
It can happen to anyone: As you’re talking, you hear yourself say, “I heard that she—wait, I mean he!” A pronoun slip can be embarrassing, especially if you pride yourself on being generally good at using the language people have asked you to use.
But why do pronoun slips happen, and why do we seem to mess up pronouns more than names or other gendered words? Linguistics (the scientific study of language) has answers, and can give us insight into how to use the words we want to use—and the techniques are surprisingly similar to how we learn new languages.
Read more here:
Mental Floss
June 20, 2023
Ontario has joined seven other provinces in announcing it will no longer incarcerate migrants detained for administrative reasons in its provincial jails.
Earlier this week, a Radio-Canada/CBC report revealed that Quebec and New Brunswick had ended their contracts with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), under which the provinces were paid to imprison foreign nationals held under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Following that news, human rights organizations and immigration lawyers reinforced their appeal to Ontario, where CBSA detains the most migrants, to follow suit.
On Thursday, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino that his government was also cancelling its contract. Under these agreements, the provinces must give CBSA one year’s notice of cancellation.
Ontario’s decision was first reported by the Globe and Mail. Radio-Canada/CBC confirmed the information.
“Ontario’s correctional institutions should be focused on providing care and custody to individuals serving custodial sentences or on remand, not on immigration detainees, which is the federal government’s responsibility,” a ministry spokesperson told Radio-Canada/CBC.
Read more here:
CBC News
June 16, 2023
London police officials are not doing enough to analyze their own race-based use-of-force numbers to start tackling systemic racism within their organization, an expert in police data says.
London police numbers crunched by researcher Tandeep Sidhu show Black people in the city experienced force by officers at a rate five times higher than the general population in 2022. Indigenous Londoners experienced use of force by officers at a rate of just over twice as high as the general population that same year.
“In order to move forward and effectively address these issues, there needs to be an acknowledgment of systemic discrimination in policing practices. This is a matter of public trust and transparency,” Sidhu told CBC News.
Sidhu was with a research team analyzing data for the police watchdog Special Investigations Unit. He specializes in race-based numbers analysis and is working on his PhD at the University of Waterloo.
Read more here:
CBC News
June 16, 2023
People who use fentanyl on the streets of London say the deadly opioid is becoming ever cheaper and more powerful, delivering higher highs, while simultaneously raising the risk of overdose death.
Without widespread testing, there’s no way of knowing, but the city’s drug problem has become more visible in the core, where strung out users lay in alcoves, doorways and on sidewalks where they remain sprawled in broad daylight, sometimes for hours, as passersby go on with their daily business in the city centre.
Relief agency officials say while the problem might appear more visible, it’s not because of an increased prevalence of drug abuse. Rather, the city’s homeless population has recently doubled, making people who use the drugs to self-medicate for pain, mental illness, or sometimes just to catch some sleep, more visible.
“I really believe it’s getting stronger,” said Dave, a fentanyl user who spoke to CBC News on the condition his real name would not be used in order to protect him from the stigma of homelessness and drug addiction.
Read more here:
CBC News
June 16, 2023
A Winnipeg man living with a cocaine addiction who has previously spent time in a provincial jail is back behind bars, this time in a federal penitentiary — and that’s what he wanted.
Jason Walmsley, 34, told CBC in an interview inside the federal Stony Mountain Institution that a prison sentence — as opposed to a provincial jail sentence at Headingley Correctional Centre, where he’s served time before — will give him a better chance at staying clean after he’s released.
With a provincial jail, “when my release date comes, that’s exactly what it is — it’s a release. You get let go at the first bus stop in the west end of Winnipeg,” Walmsley said.
“I know for a fact that when I get released from this [federal] prison [and] that while I’m in this prison, the biggest concern for them is something called my correction plan.”
Read more here:
CBC News
June 15, 2023
In a few weeks, a black van with tinted windows will be rolling into communities across midwestern Ontario, offering help for people dealing with everything from anxiety to addictions.
“You’ll see the clinic doesn’t have any logos or any identification on it. We want it to be a discreet, stigma-free opportunity for people,” explained Erik Sande, president of Medavie Health Services.
With funds from the province, Medavie Health will be the operators of midwestern Ontario’s first mobile mental health and addictions clinic.
Starting later this summer, one social worker and one registered nurse or nurse practitioner will travel around Perth, Wellington, Huron, and Bruce counties, offering immediate help for people dealing with things like anxiety and depression, and referrals for more complicated mental health and addiction emergencies.
Read more here:
CTV News
June 13, 2023
Anthony Kelly trudged through southwest Baltimore, each laboured footstep a reminder of the roofing accident that left him with chronic pain and a raging opioid addiction several years after he returned home from serving in the Marines.
Doctors used metal plates to reconstruct his lower legs and Kelly spent months learning to walk again. So began his plodding journey into the depths of substance use disorder, a downward spiral that would gradually weaken his body and consume his mind.
After his prescribed painkillers ran out, Kelly turned to a combination of heroin and cocaine that sometimes cost $500 per day.
More than a decade later, his substance use is more manageable and less expensive, though it remains a controlling force in his life. He takes buprenorphine, a prescription medication that’s considered the gold standard for treating opioid addiction by reducing cravings and easing withdrawal symptoms.
Read more here:
CTV News
June 11, 2023
As pushback and protests continue over drag storytimes across Southwestern Ontario, advocates say making those experiences available is a way to teach understanding and accepting differences.
Adam Davies, the co-chair of the Anti-Oppression Rainbow Research Lab at the University of Guelph — who is also a registered early childhood educator — believes drag queen storytimes are something worth fighting for.
“It is of the most – the utmost importance – to fight for drag and drag storytime because of how it really is showing children, young people, families what we could be as a future society in terms of reimagining and transforming gender,” Davies told CBC News.
“And these spaces are so important because we know that children start bullying and policing each other’s gender at a very young age, and those behaviours are often learned from parents and family figures.”
Read more here:
CBC News
June 7, 2023
In a dominantly white culture, racialized people in Canada may “codeswitch”, Selam Debs, an antiracism coach said.
Code-switching refers to a person changing their behaviour, expression or appearance Debs told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday, explaining the reasons for doing so can include safety, job opportunities or quality service.
“Black, Indigenous and racialized folks are often considered ‘the other’ when it comes to accents,” she said. “So we might change the way that we speak, recognizing that it is in relationship with trying to fit into what is considered professional.”
Read more here:
CTV News
June 5, 2023
The city has approved a deal with charity Indwell for 44 deeply affordable, highly supportive housing units, a step toward London’s promise to open 100 such apartments by the end of the year.
City councillors approved the plan for the supportive housing units last week. It will cost about $1.7 million a year to operate the facility, money that will come from the city initially but will eventually receive subsidies from provincial health care and federal homelessness funding.
The building at 403 Thompson Road in the Glen Cairn neighbourhood will provide 24/7 onsite care that includes mental health, addiction and nursing services, as well as one meal per day, activities and other and housing stability supports for tenants.
“To be able to transition this site to something that supplies 44 of the 100 highly supportive units that we want to have this year puts us on a really good track to demonstrate to the funding partners that we are 100 per cent serious about moving forward with our plan on an aggressive timeframe and we’re willing to shift our approach and our assets to be able to do that,” said Mayor Josh Morgan.
Indwell is the largest developer of the purpose-built, affordable and supportive housing in the province.
Read more here:
CBC News
June 5, 2023
A new study has revealed an increase in antipsychotic drugs use in long-term care homes across Canada despite no significant increase in behavioural symptoms of residents – something that may expose a potential area of concern for quality of care, researchers say.
The study, published in Health Services Insights, examined data from yearly Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reports to assess how COVID-19 impacted resident admission and discharge rates, resident health attributes, treatments, and quality of care.
The report data was collected two years pre-pandemic and in the first year of COVID-19, and was from more than 500,000 residents across Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Read more here:
CTV News
June 3, 2023
Despite the promises of “universality” and “accessibility” enshrined in the Canada Health Act, virtual delivery of family physician services for mental health varies enormously across the country.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic onset, virtual delivery of physician services in Canada was rare – other than in specific settings, it was not included within publicly funded health services. Soon after the start of the pandemic, 50 per cent of outpatient care was provided through virtual modalities, an astonishing 56-fold increase, comprising 71 per cent of primary-care visits in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a welcome change for many patients, who had reported substantial barriers to accessing virtual care in the past.
These changes also impacted accessing mental-health services for many patients, given that primary mental-health care physician services are publicly funded, and therefore free-of-charge to most patients. Our team’s work has demonstrated that anxiety and depression were the most common reason for people consulting family physicians in 2020.
Family doctors are a mainstay of mental-health services in Canada because their services are paid for by provincial and territorial Medicare programs. Billing codes included in the Schedule of Medical Benefits in each province and territory determine the range of services that are publicly funded. The biggest change after the start of the pandemic was that synchronous virtual care (where the physician and patient are interacting in real-time, using video or phone calls) became part of what was publicly funded across the country.
Read more here:
Healthy Debate
May 28, 2023
Despite the increased availability of resources to tackle the student mental-health crisis across Canadian universities, three in four post-secondary students are unaware of how to access campus mental-health resources.
Undergraduate students voice that there is a disconnect between what is available to students with mental-health disabilities and their knowledge of their rights and resources, preventing them from utilizing accessibility services.
Of those registered with accessibility services at the University of Toronto, mental-health disabilities are more prevalent than all other disabilities combined, according to an emailed statement from the school.
Despite this, students often have little time for conversations with their accessibility department to learn how to navigate within academics, says Jeanette Parsons, director of the Accessible Learning Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University. “Maybe some additional resources could be added,” she says.
Some students may not be aware of the rights they have, for example privacy around the nature of their specific medical conditions. After she was asked by a professor why she required accommodations, a University of Toronto student says, “I didn’t feel like I was in a place where I could say that I’m not comfortable sharing (that information) and still have access to my accommodations.
Read more here:
Healthy Debate
May 29, 2023
People think we’ve got the market cornered on houselessness here in Portland, Ore., but traveling across Idaho, Utah, and Arizona this winter helped confirm that this is not a uniquely West Coast Thing; it’s endemic. Houseless folks make people anxious, which explains how housed people often react. They made me anxious, too, when someone camped on my sidewalk for the first time. My anxiousness embarrassed me, so I became curious where it came from.
That curiosity led me to a series of experiences trying to help people who were experiencing houselessness, working with mutual aid agencies, government services, and nonprofits. I don’t have all the answers, but I have developed personal policies that help guide my actions now. They are imperfect, and always evolving, but here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
Read more here:
Lifehacker
May 26, 2023
Carolyn Weiss didn’t give it much thought when she posted a news article that spoke positively about vaccines on her personal Facebook.
It was January 2021 and COVID-19 vaccines were beginning to be administered across the country, sparking fierce public debate.
Little did the chiropractor based in Selkirk, Man., know that post would be the start of an 18-month ordeal — one that put her career in jeopardy and led to a public inquiry that cost her thousands of dollars in legal fees before she was cleared of all wrongdoing.
All because the articles mentioned the word vaccines.
“I was confused and baffled,” Weiss told CBC News. “I posted something that was general health information.”
The complaint placed Weiss in the middle of an ongoing divide in the profession over vaccination and what can be said.
Read more here:
CBC News
May 23, 2023
Years ago, when I was looking for my first faculty position, I sought the advice of someone who was technically supposed to serve as one of my advisors. This person offered me only two pieces of advice: Go to a career fair and read career advice books. Yep, that’s what I got from this person, who in the career advice arena was about as useful as a ferret serving as IT support. This person was essentially saying, “Don’t ask me to really help you.”
These were but two examples of the plethora of useless career advice that I received when I could have instead used some real help.
Read more here:
Psychology Today
May 22, 2023
The lived experience, the direct and unintentional (as in not stunt journalism) experience of homelessness, is increasingly used and prioritized in policy and program realms. While much of this is good, I think it needs to be examined more closely.
As someone with the lived experience of homelessness when I was a young adult in my then-hometown of Richmond, Virginia, it is a concept that I wrestle with. What counts as lived experience, who decides what counts, and is lived experience something that automatically turns people into, as referred to by Pathway UK, experts by experience?
I find it encouraging that there is a growing understanding of the importance of people with the lived experience of homelessness needing to be included in real, not token, ways for more effective program planning and policy-making. An example of this locally is Marc Dones, a Black non-binary person with the lived experience of homelessness and mental illness (bipolar disorder), who was named the first director of the King County Homelessness Regional Authority. This week, Marc announced that he is leaving his position. People with the lived experience of homelessness have long been employed as outreach workers, but not many have become leaders like Marc and Derrick Belgarde, an Indigenous man, and CEO of the Chief Seattle Club.
Read more here:
Psychology Today
May 22, 2023
Advocates are blasting the City of Barrie for approving a slew of policies that, if put in place, could outlaw giving food or money to people in the city who are experiencing homelessness.
In a city council meeting Wednesday, councillors approved a range of policies that staff can consider and use to address rising homelessness, including changes to city bylaws that will prohibit the use and distribution of tents and tarps on public land, and giving out food and groceries without a permit.
Staff were also directed to consider methods that would ban donations to panhandlers on city streets, intersections and highway ramps, opting to place signs discouraging the practice in favour of donating to service agencies instead.
Former councillor Keenan Aylwin says their approach will have the opposite effect of what’s intended.
Read more here:
CBC News
May 21, 2023
Neither Bell Canada nor the Ontario government will say how much money they made from a jail phone system that charged what lawyers describe as “exorbitant” rates for inmate calls over eight years.
Bell operated the Offender Telephone Management System from 2013 to 2021 — which allowed inmates to only place collect calls — at a flat rate of $1 for local calls, but about $1 per minute plus a $2.50 connection fee for long-distance calls, according to a recent Appeal Court decision.
The rates were four times higher than those charged to inmates in other provinces, a lower court judge found. The new phone system now in place under a different company includes long-distance rates of a few cents a minute.
As well, the province took a commission on the money Bell made from those calls — which the court said numbered about 15,000 a day. The government declined to provide the amount collected or explain why it collected a commission, in response to queries from The Canadian Press.
Read more here:
Global News
May 16, 2023
Prioritizing the health and well-being of police officers is fundamental to improving the way police serve the community and build trust with the public, says the incoming St. Thomas police chief.
Acting Chief Marc Roskamp, who will be sworn in Tuesday, outlined his vision.
The 25-year veteran spoke about the pressure his officers face handling problems from addiction and homelessness to repeat offenders and petty crime.
“If we are healthy in the inside, we will be healthy on the outside to deliver services,” he said, describing the force’s 82 officers and 47 civilian workers as “the most valuable asset.
“We need to find ways to ensure that our members feel valued when they come to work,” he said.
Roskamp, who started with the St. Thomas force as a cadet in 1988, said collaboration with community partners is crucial.
Read more here:
London Free Press
May 15, 2023
In both Europe and the US, people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. But spending so much time inside can have consequences for your mental health.
The World Health Organization estimates that 5% of adults globally suffer from depression. Stress, depression and anxiety also accounted for 55% of all working days lost in the UK during the year 2021-22. Small improvements in our mental health can bring significant personal and financial rewards.
For those of us who are stuck inside all day, houseplants are an easy way of connecting with nature. This is particularly true for young people, many of whom may lack access to a garden.
Indoor plants have several mental and physical health benefits. Research has linked houseplants to reduced stress, lower blood pressure and an improved state of mind. And office environments with plants have been associated with higher job satisfaction and reduced health complaints.
Houseplants make us feel good due to our inherent desire to connect with nature, and because we consider the green colours of most houseplants to be calming. Adding just a single plant can brighten up a dull space and boost your mood. But which should you choose?
Read more here:
PsyPost
May 13, 2023
AI is transforming the world as we know it, with its impact felt across every industry. However, not all of these changes are necessarily positive. While AI offers exciting new opportunities in many areas, we cannot ignore the fact that it lacks an inherent moral compass or fact-checking system to guide its decision-making.
This is why you should always fact-check everything you’re being told as the world becomes more AI-centric. Certain AI tools can manipulate information, misunderstand context completely, and be confidently wrong at the same time, which is why blindly trusting AI is a bad idea.
Read more here:
Make Use Of
May 13, 2023
