Lack of appropriate and safe community options also severely impacts inpatient mental health care and, frustratingly, this often means dealing with different government ministries that don’t seem to communicate or care about the others’ budget
🧵

https://twitter.com/trclosson/status/1710237578480259238

Hospital beds obviously fall under Health but community placements are the responsibility of Social Services and, sometimes, ICFS under federal jurisdiction. There is a severe lack of homes for youth and adults with developmental disabilities who sometimes act aggressively.

As a child psychiatrist, I have grave concerns about this entire release, but this part in particular that got buried at the end:
“The province also announced parent/guardian consent for students under 16 will now be required to change a student’s name or pronouns in the school.”

https://twitter.com/thestarphoenix/status/1694022578011087091

Many patients have evolving gender identities. Sometimes being trans sticks and other times (though less often) kids revert back to their gender assigned at birth; identity formation is the literal ‘job’ of adolescence. They lead the way and I try to use their preferred names/

“Using an [FOI] request, Global News obtained internal government messages that show Shahab told provincial leaders the healthcare system would be overwhelmed more than a month before patients were transferred to Ontario.”

1/3

https://twitter.com/aogieglo/status/1636886268054499329

This is not surprising but still incredibly infuriating to read.

Anyone tracking our ICU capacity and infection rates knew we were on a collision course to collapse.

2/3

I knew our current healthcare crisis would trigger a descent into two-tiered medicine but I didn’t realize that American-style primary care was already happening right here in Saskatchewan 💔:

neroshouse.ca

1/9 I don’t know the person behind this business, but I learned today that this clinic is offering private pay primary care and mental health services through nurse practitioners. A family med-style consultation will set you back $150 while a follow up runs $90 (one issue only)

2/9

Well, I avoided it for a while but I finally brought myself to read through the “child training” manual written by Keith Johnson, former pastor of the church now called Mile Two.

Trigger warning: predictably it is incredibly distressing and problematic.

#LegacyOfAbuse The entire method centres around coercive control to produce meek and obedient children who will never question an adult (this is slightly besides the point, but this is absolutely the perfect recipe to groom children for sexual predators)

Remember: only the devil gives options.

I think when we look back at our pandemic response, one of the biggest mistakes we made could be summarized as ‘not making it easy enough for people to do the right thing.’ 🧵

1/5 As soon as supply scarcity was no longer an issue, we should have made medical grade masks (and then N95s) free or subsidized and easy to access. Distribution sites like our testing kits in Saskatchewan would have been fantastic.

2/5

.@PremierScottMoe, it was more than disheartening to hear you talk today about how doctors should *start* publicly educating and talking to media to counter pandemic misinformation, as if we haven’t been doing this kind of advocacy from the start.

A thread (with receipts): Back in March 2020, we saw the writing on the wall and knew we needed more action from our political & business leaders. Our first open letter, signed by nearly 200 Drs, called for a move to encourage employees to work from home and businesses to move to a takeout/curbside model.

https://twitter.com/paulmasiowski/status/1240398888202313730

A few slides that I thought were particularly important from tonight’s #Covid19Sk physician town hall:

Firstly, this should be no surprise that Sask holds the dubious distinction of being among the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country. Dark blue = bad. The % change columns are important and have basically flatlined into the lowest rates in the country. @skgov wants to put all their eggs in the vaccine basket but also shows no willingness to find ways to increase uptake. Other jurisdictions tell us that vaccine mandates work.

This mantra from @PremierScottMoe about "lives vs livelihoods" is such a false dichotomy. It's upsetting to me because it completely shuts down the option of time-limited financial support for business owners and employees to temporarily shut down so we can quash this curve.
1/4 "Livelihoods" are only at risk if we refuse to help people when they are in need. Instead of forcing businesses to remain open when it's unsafe to do so, we could be providing rental and wage subsidies. Is this expensive? Maybe. You know what is also expensive?
2/4

I spoke with @SLangeneggerCBC on the radio this morning about the psychology of pandemic rules and some of the reasons why we may be seeing more apathy from some of our partners on this large-scale group project where we all need to do our part. 🧵: Rules need to be consistent and simple. Most want to do their part but we need to make rules easy to understand. I’m often asked what the various restrictions are for indoor vs outdoor vs restaurants gatherings, how long do you need to self isolate with a negative test? Etc.

From @MMandryk: “As Moe watches malls and box stores crowded with Christmas shoppers and sees daily case COVID-19 cases and deaths rise, surely he understands now is not the time to send signals we can be lax?”

This is what blows my mind:

1/5

google.ca/amp/s/leaderpo… The premier has seen the same modelling numbers the physicians did at our provincial town hall last week (this is now available on the SHA website). He knows what the forecast shows in terms of our hospital capacity - even *with* our current level of restrictions.

2/5

I've been asked to do a post on how to manage anxiety and other mental health symptoms that may be popping up or exacerbated by the #pandemic. As a psychiatrist I can't help manage ventilators or relieve our tired ER physicians so hopefully this is a small way I can be helpful: 1. News and social media can be a vital source of information updates but there's a fine line between being informed and getting overwhelmed by (mis)information. Bombarding yourself like that is a surefire way to worsen anxiety; try to unplug and disconnect for a few hours a day