Research being done to understand lack of socialization during pandemic Experts encourage parents and educators to find ways for children to learn social skills missed in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when classes moved online and schools temporarily closed. For more than two years, Rachel MacFadyen had become used to seeing her classmates wearing masks…
Category: Community News
Author Talks: We need to talk about Asian American mental health
Dr. Jenny Wang created the Instagram account @asiansformentalhealth in fall 2019. As the pandemic—and anti-Asian hate—spread, it became a haven for Asian Americans seeking mental-health resources. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Christine Y. Chen chats with Dr. Jenny Wang about her new book, Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans (Balance, May…
Unvaccinated workers are heading back to the office — and it’s going to be awkward
Employers are lifting COVID-19 vaccination requirements and employees sent home for refusing to get vaccinated are flooding back. We asked experts how we should deal with what already looks like a messy situation. The executives at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment were hardly the only bosses hyping their supersafe COVID-19 protocols. Back in September, when…
Canadians seeking closure are finally holding funerals, memorials delayed by COVID-19
Funeral directors say some clients have waited 2 years to give their loved one a fitting send-off. Funeral directors say some of their summer clients have held off holding proper funerals and memorial services for two years because of pandemic restrictions on gatherings and travel, leaving them in a state of suspended grief. (Kzenon/Shutterstock) For more…
WHO highlights urgent need to transform mental health and mental health care
Report urges mental health decision makers and advocates to step up commitment and action to change attitudes, actions and approaches to mental health, its determinants and mental health care. The World Health Organization today released its largest review of world mental health since the turn of the century. The detailed work provides a blueprint for governments, academics,…
Asian Canadians felt unsafe due to discrimination linked to the COVID‑19 pandemic, study shows
As COVID-19 began its spread around the world after emerging in China, people of Asian descent started to experience one of the pandemic’s uglier consequences—a surge in discrimination that involved both verbal and physical abuse. In some of the most grievous incidents, an elderly Thai grandfather died after being shoved to the ground in San…
Study finds covid-19 made most Canadians more trusting, depending on their income
THREE THEORIES EXIST ON WHAT HAPPENS TO SOCIAL TRUST DURING TIMES OF SOCIAL STRESS You wouldn’t think it to watch scenes of honking truck drivers or sign-carrying anti-vaccine protesters, but new survey data suggests Canadians have more trust in their institutions and their neighbours since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Canada is a long way from…
Leveraging anthropological expertise to respond to the COVID-19 global mental health syndemic
Abstract This commentary asks anthropologists to work within communities to actively address the global mental health impact of COVID-19 and contribute to the pandemic response. Multiple social and physical losses, worsened by numerous factors, have produced syndemic traumatic stress and suffering across populations, highlighting persistent inequalities further amplified by the effects of COVID-19. Specifically, anthropologists…
Opportunities to tackle structural racism and ethnicity-based discrimination in recovering and rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic
The impact of COVID-19 has been disproportionately felt by populations experiencing structural racial- and ethnicity-based discrimination. Here, we describe opportunities for COVID-19 response and recovery efforts to help build more equal and resilient societies, through investments in: (i) interventions focused on explicitly addressing racial and ethnicity-based discrimination; (ii) interventions supporting the delivery of universal services,…
Targeted wastewater surveillance has a history of social and ethical concerns
Wastewater surveillance involves testing sewage to obtain data about a population’s health. While the technique is decades old, it has gained recent international prominence for its ability to predict pandemic surges, detect new SARS-CoV-2 variants and provide useful data when traditional testing methods reach capacity. With its success, the field is expanding. Wastewater surveillance increasingly…