A Queen’s University professor is the lead author of a new paper advocating for better mental health care for children of parents with severe mental illnesses.
Health
Proactive mental health care for children of parents with mental disorders called for
Duffy worked alongside scientists, clinicians and experts from 37 different countries to produce the paper, which was published on July 20 in the online journal Nature Mental Health.
“This is an international consortium of experts from complementary disciplines who got together, and we wrote this evidence-based review and call to action to advocate for proactive support and services for children at familial risk of severe mental illness,” Duffy told the Whig-Standard on Monday.
Duffy said that currently in Canada and other places in the world, children would have to present as symptomatic themselves to access their own services.
“We’re sort of seeing this disconnect between the adult and the children services, and also, shouldn’t we be incorporating monitoring the mental health of these children at high risk as proactive prevention and health promotion, being mindful not to stigmatize or over-pathologize, because a lot of the kids are well?”
The many years of research that has led to Duffy and her co-authors’ paper has allowed them to formulate recommendations for policymakers, including Duffy’s 25-year-long Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded study identified as Flourish, following children at risk of bipolar disorder due to having a parent with that disorder.
Duffy’s Canadian high-risk offspring bipolar study has worked to map biological and psychological risk factors and genetic determinants in the quest to understand the onset of bipolar disorder.
Queen’s is launching a parallel research program for university students, looking at common mental disorders in post-secondary students.
That research and more has informed the recently published paper, as well as the recommendations that its authors are making to policymakers.
The paper puts forward five recommendations, beginning with the creation of a task force of multidisciplinary experts, stakeholders and families on an international level to develop guidelines for supporting children’s well-being.
Further, the paper recommends that new training for psychiatrists and new mental health care pathways for children be developed, and then that academics, health-care providers, research communities, funding agencies and stakeholders be engaged to support both children and their parents through a number of initiatives and resources.
While faculty at universities like Queen’s have historically been well positioned to help inform the development of clinical practice, Duffy believes there is room for improvement.
“We certainly need to do more of that,” she said. “It’s getting the right people around the table. Hopefully, if this is an identified priority with those involved with planning out care, then hopefully they would invite us to the table. … We really do need to get back to the table. We’re currently not at the table, and I don’t know what’s happened. I think there was a different political philosophy in Ontario, and then there was COVID. We really need to have the experts around the table with the politicians in order to be pragmatic and translate the findings into evidence-based care, but also to show the cost-effectiveness of this to the taxpayer.”
“We’re negligent as a society if we continue to turn a blind eye to this,” she said.
After working with parents and their children for 25 years in her research, Duffy sees the need and the commitment to the issue on the part of families.
“What’s lacking is the commitment and willpower from the powers that be that organize care in this province and country,” she said.
“We arguably have the best data in the world … we’ve done really excellent work, like many Canadian research groups have, and sometimes these findings get more readily uptaken around the rest of the world than they do in Canada. I’m really passionate about this because I think we can make a difference in my own lifetime, and today, for young people.”
Health
How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Health
Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Health
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