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U of T Study Highlights Health-Care Barriers Women With Disabilities Face During Pregnancy

Women with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to experience life-threatening pregnancy complications or maternal death compared to their peers, a study by University of Toronto researchers has found.

The finding, published recently in the journal JAMA Network Open, is the result of the largest study of maternal outcomes for women with disabilities in Canadian history, highlighting the need for better access to medical care in this population of women.

“We need to make health care more accessible, but this also raises awareness that women with disabilities have a right to quality health care and good pregnancy outcomes,” says lead author Hilary Brown, an assistant professor in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough and an adjunct scientist at Women’s College Research Institute and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

U of T Study Highlights Health-Care Barriers Women With Disabilities Face During Pregnancy full article

The Pandemic Has Made Post-Secondary students’ Mental Health Even Worse

As college and university students face a mental health crisis, faculty and institutions are looking at making structural changes By Julia Mastroianni
Now Toronto, Jan 25, 2021

Among the many negative effects of COVID-19, deteriorating mental health of post-secondary students has been one of the most serious and widespread.

Mental health stressors are a major issue for post-secondary students in particular, though the pandemic has only exacerbated a growing crisis in Canada.

“Things were going downhill in mental health for students across North America before COVID,” says Paul Ritvo, a psychology professor at York University who has been studying the effects of mindfulness on student mental health. “What COVID has done is it has put health and health science in the top headlines, and we have become a more health-oriented society.”

The Pandemic Has Made Post-Secondary students’ Mental Health Even Worse full article

Cyberpunk Adds Epilepsy Warning After Reviewer Warns of Seizures

Published December 11, 2020

The developer of Cyberpunk 2077 is adding warnings to the game, after reviewers and charities complained it caused epileptic seizures.

It thanked one reviewer who said it had triggered “one major seizure” and left them “close” to another several times.

“Regarding a more permanent solution, [the] dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible,” it tweeted.

The game is released on Thursday, after months of repeated delays.

What is the problem?

Video games have long been a potential trigger for those who have epileptic seizures and standard warnings have been written in to licence agreements over the years.

Cyberpunk Adds Epilepsy Warning After Reviewer Warns of Seizures full article

Why Disability Advocates are Worried About Changes to Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Bill

Jeff Preston wants to know what governments are doing to help people with disabilities live Rebecca Zandbergen , CBC News
Posted: Dec 08, 2020

If Bill C-7 passes, the federal government will give many more Canadians access to medical assisted dying (MAID), particularly those in the disability community.

The legislation removes a requirement that a patient’s natural death be “reasonably foreseeable,” a change that would satisfy a September 2019 Quebec Superior Court ruling that deemed parts of the federal and provincial laws on assisted dying unconstitutional.

Why Disability Advocates are Worried About Changes to Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Bill full article

Telehealth May Worsen Digital Divide for People With Disabilities(PWDs)

A recently published JAMIA paper argues that design, implementation and policy considerations must be taken into account when developing virtual care technology. By Kat Jercich
November 23, 2020

Much has been made of telehealth’s potential to bridge the accessibility gap for those who may be otherwise underserved by the healthcare systems.

But, experts said in a new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association this past week, telehealth may also exacerbate inequities faced by the disability community.

“There remains a pressing need to explicitly consider how changes in the prevalence and ubiquity of telehealth impact people with disabilities,” wrote the authors.

Telehealth May Worsen Digital Divide for People With Disabilities(PWDs) full article

Disability Advocates Say Assisted Dying Bill Fails to Protect Vulnerable Canadians

Man suffering from neurological disorder says MAID easier to access than supports for disabled Canadians Kathleen Harris, CBC News
Posted: Nov 10, 2020

The House of Commons justice committee heard today from opponents of the federal government’s plan to change the rules for medical assistance in dying.

Advocates for Canadians with disabilities are sounding the alarm over a bill to expand medical assistance in dying, warning that it will devalue the lives of vulnerable people.

Speaking to MPs on the justice committee via Zoom from his hospital bed in London, Ont., Roger Foley pleaded with policymakers to focus on providing more assistance and home care to Canadians with disabilities. He said he has been denied proper care and was “coerced” into choosing MAID because his acute care needs were too much for hospital staff to handle.

Disability Advocates Say Assisted Dying Bill Fails to Protect Vulnerable Canadians full article

Medical Practice Sued for Discriminatory Policy That Jeopardizes Patients with Disabilities

August 13, 2020

” Louisville, KY ” Yesterday, following the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), Disability Rights Advocates filed a putative class action lawsuit against First Urology, challenging the medical practice’s illegal policy of refusing to help patients with disabilities transfer from wheelchairs or other mobility devices to examination tables and diagnostic equipment, in violation of the ADA and other disability rights laws.

First Urology is a full-service urological medical and imaging practice with roughly twenty locations in Kentucky and Indiana.

Medical Practice Sued for Discriminatory Policy That Jeopardizes Patients with Disabilities full article

Advocates Push for Changes to Mental Health Act

By CAMILLE BAINS
THE CANADIAN PRESS, Globe and Mail, Sept. 2, 2020
VANCOUVER – A week after giving birth to her daughter, Shareen Nimmo was forced to enter a psychiatric facility without being informed of her rights or having access to independent legal advice.

Involuntary detention is permitted in Canada but unlike most of the country, British Columbia does not provide patients with legal representation, which the ombudsperson wants changed in the Mental Health Act.

Ms. Nimmo, 38, still feels the sting of the trauma she endured on March 27, 2019, when police officers and paramedics arrived at her home and took her to hospital.

Advocates Push for Changes to Mental Health Act full article

Global Mental Health Crisis Looming Due to coronavirus Pandemic, UN Warns

Kate Kelland Reuters
May 14, 2020

While countries around the world continue to mobilize to contain the spread of COVID-19, mental health experts say we can’t lose sight of an equally alarming issue: The long-term mental health impact the coronavirus pandemic is going to leave on society.

A mental illness crisis is looming as millions of people worldwide are surrounded by death and disease and forced into isolation, poverty and anxiety by the pandemic of COVID-19, United Nations health experts said on Thursday.

“The isolation, the fear, the uncertainty, the economic turmoil they all cause or could cause psychological distress,” said Devora Kestel, director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) mental health department.

Global Mental Health Crisis Looming Due to coronavirus Pandemic, UN Warns full article

‘You Just Spiral’: UBC President Who Overcame Mental Health Crisis Determined to Help Canadian Students

Santa J. Ono was afraid to speak out about his mental illness; now he’s a champion for mental health on campus CBC Radio
Posted: Feb 14, 2020

University of British Columbia president Santa J. Ono understands the immense pressures students face, having dealt with his own mental health crisis as a student.

Eleanor Vannon was a student at Camosun College in Victoria when anxiety literally stopped her in her tracks.

Vannon had experienced anxiety in high school, but she had high expectations of herself, and felt she had to be “the strongest and the toughest.” At the same time, she was haunted by feelings of low-self worth, and questioned if she even deserved a post-secondary education.

‘You Just Spiral’: UBC President Who Overcame Mental Health Crisis Determined to Help Canadian Students full article