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Introduction: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care nurses were often redeployed to areas outside of primary care to mitigate staffing shortages. Despite this, there is a scarcity of literature describing their perceptions of and experiences with redeployment during the pandemic. Objectives: This paper aims to: 1) describe the perspectives of primary care nurses with respect to redeployment, 2) discuss the opportunities/challenges associated with redeployment of primary care nurses, and 3) examine the nature (e.g., settings, activities) of redeployment by primary care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with primary care nurses (i.e., Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, and Licensed/Registered Practical Nurses), from four regions in Canada. These include the Interior, Island, and Vancouver Coastal Health regions in British Columbia; Ontario Health West region in Ontario; the province of Nova Scotia; and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Data related to redeployment were analyzed thematically. Results: Three overarching themes related to redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic were identified: (1) Call to redeployment, (2) Redeployment as an opportunity/challenge, and (3) Scope of practice during redeployment. Primary care nurses across all regulatory designations reported variation in the process of redeployment within their jurisdiction (e.g., communication, policies/legislation), different opportunities and challenges that resulted from redeployment (e.g., scheduling flexibility, workload implications), and scope of practice implications (e.g., perceived threat to nursing license). The majority of nurses discussed experiences with redeployment being voluntary in nature, rather than mandated. Conclusions: Redeployment is a useful workforce strategy during public health emergencies; however, it requires a structured process and a decision-making approach that explicitly involves healthcare providers affected by redeployment. Primary care nurses ought only to be redeployed after other options are considered and arrangements made for the care of patients in their original practice area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the study protocol for the Learning Environments' Activity Potential for Preschoolers (LEAPP) study, the goal of which is to describe the activity levels of preschoolers attending various early learning venues and explore which attributes of these facilities (e.g. curriculum, policies, equipment, etc.) support activity participation. Design and Methods. This cross-sectional study aimed to recruit approximately 30 early learning environments requesting participation from preschoolers aged 2.5-5 years. Data collection included: Actical accelerometers (MiniMitter, Oregon, USA) to measure the activity levels of children for five consecutive days (15-second epoch length) while in care; the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation tool to explore the early learning environment's impact on activity; anthropometric data; the Child Temperament Questionnaire to assess the influence of preschoolers' temperament on physical activity; and demographic information from parents/guardians and early learning staff. ANOVA and linear regression analyses will be conducted to assess variances in activity levels among preschoolers attending different early learning types and to explore the impact of early learning environments on their activity levels. Independent sample t-tests will be used to examine differences in activity levels based on sex and weight status. Expected impact of the study for public health. This research will provide the first Canadian data to address environmental influences on preschoolers' activity levels in differing early learning environments. Additionally, this work will highlight the extent to which activity levels vary among preschoolers enrolled in full-day kindergarten, centre-, and home-based childcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada mandated that cereal grains, especially white flour, be fortified with folic acid by mid-1998. Between 0.1 and 0.2 mg of additional synthetic folic acid per day has been provided through this initiative. The current paper describes how this took place, and the epidemiological effects that occurred in the Canadian population, including higher blood folate levels and a decline in the prevalence of neural tube defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prenatal health promotion includes the provision of evidence-based information and practical skills to optimize maternal–fetal outcomes. Increasingly, prenatal education is delivered by both healthcare professionals and allied childbirth educators, in community- or hospital-based group classes, targeted outreach programs, and online modules. Objectives: To better understand how prenatal health promotion relates to a diverse urban community, we assessed the perspectives of Ottawa, Canada prenatal key informants. Design: This is a qualitative research with key informant interviews. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 prenatal key informants, responsible for the design, delivery, or promotion of publicly available prenatal health services. Interviews explored concepts and delivery of prenatal health promotion, strategies to address existing and emerging prenatal topics, identification of barriers to prenatal health services, and recommendations. Results: Key informants recommended a lifespan approach to prenatal health promotion, with an emphasis on healthy behaviors, emotional health, labor and delivery, and postpartum/early parenting. Recognizing community health disparities, key informants used community outreach, and intersectoral collaborations for Indigenous and other at-risk communities to mitigate barriers to prenatal service uptake. Conclusions: Ottawa key informants conceptualized prenatal health promotion as inclusive, comprehensive, and as an extension of preconception, school-based sexual education. Respondents recommended the design and delivery of prenatal interventions as culturally safe and trauma informed, using online modalities to complement in-person activities. The experience and intersectoral networks of community-based prenatal health promotion programs represent potential capacity to address emergent public health risks to pregnancy, particularly among at-risk populations. Plain Language Summary: A broad and diverse community of professionals deliver prenatal education to help people have healthy babies. We interviewed Ottawa, Canada experts in prenatal care/education to learn about the design and delivery of reproductive health promotion. We found that Ottawa experts emphasized healthy behaviors beginning before conception and through pregnancy. Community outreach was identified as a successful strategy to promote prenatal education to marginalized groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pharmacy students can help protect the public from vaccine-preventable diseases by participating in immunization initiatives, which currently exist in some Canadian and American jurisdictions. The objective of this article is to critically review evidence of student impact on public health through their participation in vaccination efforts. Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Database, EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Scopus and Web of Science electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature on pharmacy student involvement in vaccination programs and their impact on public health. Papers were included up to November 17, 2015. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts and extracted data from eligible full-text articles. Results: Eighteen titles met all inclusion criteria. All studies were published between 2000 and 2015, with the majority conducted in the United States (n = 12). The number of vaccine doses administered by students in community-based clinics ranged from 109 to 15,000. Increases in vaccination rates in inpatient facilities ranged from 18.5% to 68%. Across studies, student-led educational interventions improved patient knowledge of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases. Patient satisfaction with student immunization services was consistently very high. Discussion: Methodology varied considerably across studies. The literature suggests that pharmacy students can improve public health by 1) increasing the number of vaccine doses administered, 2) increasing vaccination rates, 3) increasing capacity of existing vaccination efforts, 4) providing education about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases and 5) providing positive immunization experiences. Conclusion: Opportunities exist across Canada to increase pharmacy student involvement in immunization efforts and to assess the impact of their participation. Greater student involvement in immunization initiatives could boost immunization rates and help protect Canadians from vaccine-preventable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines access to alcohol, trends in consumption, drinking patterns, damage from alcohol, and developments in prevention and alcohol policy - focusing on the Canadian experience over the last two decades. Consumption, as measured by official sales, declined initially and then has increased since 1996. During this time there was a gradual increase in access to alcohol, with steeper increase in some jurisdictions undergoing partial or full privatization of retail alcohol sales. According to survey data, the proportion drinking in a high risk manner is greater among youth and young adults, and the trend in the proportion of high risk drinkers does not necessarily follow the trend in alcohol sales. In light of intensive and multi-dimensional efforts to curtail drinking and driving, these rates have gone down during the period under study. Several provinces have introduced alcohol strategies and a national strategy introduced in 2007 is being implemented. Nevertheless there are ongoing challenges of getting alcohol on the broader public health agenda, even though it is major contributor to disease and disability. The rising consumption and increased access to alcohol, combined with intensive marketing, represent a major public health challenge. It is unlikely that there will be significant strides in reducing the damage from alcohol to Canadian populations, unless there is a substantial change in the status quo involving implementation of the most effective policies and prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Eating disorders are common and have a high public health burden. However, existing clinically relevant data sources are scarce, limiting the capacity to accurately measure the burden of eating disorders. This study tests the feasibility of generating a large clinically relevant cohort of individuals with eating disorders using health administrative data.Methods: We developed 3 clinically relevant eating disorder prevalence cohorts using health administrative data from Ontario, Canada, between 1990 and 2014. Cohort 1 included patients with a hospitalization where an eating disorder diagnosis was the primary diagnosis, cohort 2 included patients with a hospitalization where an eating disorder diagnosis was any diagnosis, and cohort 3 included cohort 2 plus any patient with an emergency department visit with an eating disorder diagnosis.Results: Cohort 1 had 7268 patients, cohort 2 had 13,197 patients, and cohort 3 had 17,373 patients. As cohort size increased, the proportion of eating disorder patients with diagnoses of bulimia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified increased. Although the cohorts differed according to demographic and clinical characteristics, these differences were small compared to the degree to which they differed from the Ontario population.Discussion: It is feasible to use health administrative data to measure the clinically relevant burden of eating disorders. The cohorts differed significantly in the eating disorder diagnostic composition. Eating disorders have a high burden, but poor data availability has resulted in fewer public health-related eating disorders studies in comparison to other mental disorders. The use of administrative data can address this evidence gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2006. When Canada ratified the CRPD, it reserved the right to continue using substitute decision making schemes even if the CRPD was 'interpreted as requiring their elimination'. This was a prescient decision because the CRPD Committee, which is tasked with overseeing the interpretation and implementation of the CRPD, subsequently opined that all legislation supporting substitute decision making schemes contravene the CRPD and must be revoked. The CRPD Committee insists that every person can make decisions with sufficient support and that if a person lacks capacity to make a decision, we must rely on their 'will and preferences'. Many international legal scholars have called this interpretation unrealistic. We agree and, in this article, describe how this unrealistic approach would result in extensive harm and suffering for people with severe cognitive or psychotic disorders. The reader should also be aware that the CRPD Committee also calls for the elimination of all mental health acts and the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights for the abandonment of the not criminally responsible (NCR) defence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental disorders constitute a significant public health problem worldwide. Ensuring that those who need mental health services access them in an appropriate and timely manner is thus an important public health priority. We used data from 4 cross-sectional, nationally representative population health surveys that employed nearly identical methods to compare MHSU trends in the Canadian military versus comparable civilians.Method: The surveys were all conducted by Statistics Canada, approximately a decade apart (Military-2002, Military-2013, Civilian-2002, and Civilian-2012). The sample size for the pooled data across the surveys was 35,984. Comparisons across the 4 surveys were adjusted for differences in need in the 2 populations at the 2 time points.Results: Our findings suggested that first, in the Canadian military, there was a clear and consistent pattern of improvement (i.e., increase) in MHSU over the past decade across a variety of provider types. The magnitudes of the changes were large, representing an absolute increase of 7.15% in those seeking any professional care, corresponding to an 84% relative increase. Second, in comparable Canadian civilians, MHSU remained either unchanged or increased only slightly. Third, the increases in MHSU over time were consistently greater in the military than in the comparable civilian sample.Conclusions: Our findings point to advantages with respect to MHSU of the military mental health system over the civilian system in Canada; these advantages have widened substantially over time. These findings speak strongly to the potential impact of analogous changes in other health systems, both military and civilian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the summer of 2015, the Pan American and Parapan American Games took place in the Greater Toronto area of Ontario, Canada, bringing together thousands of athletes and spectators from around the world. The Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance (ACES) system--a syndromic surveillance system that captures comprehensive hospital visit triage information from acute care hospitals across Ontario--monitored distinct syndromes throughout the games. We describe the creation and use of a risk assessment tool to evaluate alerts produced by ACES during this period. During the games, ACES generated 1420 alerts, 4 of which were considered a moderate risk and were communicated to surveillance partners for further action. The risk assessment tool was useful for public health professionals responsible for surveillance activities during the games. Next steps include integrating the tool within the ACES system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of evidence-based psychotherapy (EBP) in Canada. It comments on the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating mild and moderate depression and can also help cancer patients cope with chemotherapy or assist overweight people with weight management. It mentions that EBP like CBT have limited availability in public health care systems due to the investment of time and resources. It talks about improve access to EBP in Britain's National Health Service.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Offers a comparison between public health departments in the United States and in the Canadian Province of Ontario. The study addresses the funding and staffing and size and program content of local health departments after Canada's national health reform provided universal access to personal health services.