This session will be presented by Associate Professor Michael Hildebrand, from the Department of Neuroscience.
Chronic pain represents a highly prevalent and debilitating healthcare crisis, with direct connections to mental health challenges. The ongoing opioid epidemic illustrates the urgent need to develop new therapeutic approaches for pain that are both safe and effective. In this session, Dr. Mike Hildebrand will define what pain is, with a discussion on what factors shape our experiences of pain and how changes in neurobiological mechanisms of pain processing can lead to chronic pain. This includes highlighting the discrepancies in sex and species between pain patients and typical preclinical pain models, and Dr. Hildebrand’s work aimed at addressing some of these translational divides.
Mental Health Speaker Series
This session is part of the Healthy Workplace Mental Health Speaker Series 2021/2022. Find out more.
Registration
To register for this virtual event, please fill out the form here. You will receive a Zoom link closer to the session date.
WISE — Zion Family Ministries’ activity and kitchen spaces were busy on Wednesday as the Health Wagon got back to business with its annual late winter free clinics in Wise and Clintwood.
Health Wagon President and Executive Director Dr. Teresa Tyson said Wednesday’s event marks a pair of shifts for the more than four-decade-old organization that got its start as a small mobile exam van based in Dickenson County.
Wednesday’s clinic was the first of the late winter events since 2019, when COVID-19 forced Health Wagon staff to stop mass events for fear of the disease’s spread, Tyson said.
While the organization continued with smaller community visits and appointments at its Wise and new Clintwood main offices, she said the past two years have been a balance between public safety and continuing to serve a region facing a range of health care challenges.
Tyson said the clinic’s new name — Move Mountains Medical Mission — also marks a rebranding after two decades working with Tennessee-based Remote Area Medical on annual summer free clinics in Wise County. RAM officials in 2019 acknowledged that the Health Wagon had developed a range of partnerships and regional support allowing RAM to support other health care efforts across the U.S.
COVID-19 screening was the first step for patients at Zion Family Ministries on Wednesday, but Tyson said that was not the only stage for dealing with the disease.
“One of the many things we’re doing is giving COVID shots and boosters and flu shots,” Tyson said. “The Coeburn Economic Development Authority gave us $500, and we’re using that to incentivize people to get vaccinated by putting their names in a drawing for cash prizes. That really helps because vaccinations are our best defense against the virus.”
Even though Tyson and her staff felt the pandemic situation had become safe enough to resume mass clinics like Wednesday’s event, the clinic and Thursday’s event in Clintwood were advertised as appointment-only by calls to the Health Wagon’s Wise and Clintwood offices. Tyson said the new system has helped spread out people onsite for health and safety.
While a pre-pandemic clinic would draw 150 to 200 people for services including physical exams, chest X-rays, pap smears, regular vaccinations, ultrasounds, prescription services, Medicare enrollment help and health education, Wednesday’s clinic still saw more than 100 patients.
Local attorney Brett Hall, working as a volunteer runner at Wednesday’s clinic, said he owed it to Move Mountains because Health Wagon medical staff probably saved his life when he contracted COVID-19 a second time despite being vaccinated.
“They were able to give me monoclonal antibodies when I showed symptoms and I was much better the next day,” Hall said.
Dr. Joe Frank Smiddy, who has operated the Health Wagon’s radiology van and provided chest X-ray services for its events, said COVID-19 has added an extra dimension to what had been a longtime focus on helping diagnose the region’s residents with COPD and black lung.
“Before COVID we were dealing with coal workers, COPD and asthma, people with lung fungus and smoking,” said Smiddy. “Immediately, when COVID hit, we knew that some of the COVID patients would have underlying lung disease and we started doing chest X-rays. If we could improve their lung health, they could deal with COVID better if they got it.”
Smiddy said “long COVID” — symptoms that infected patients face after recovering from the disease — pose another challenge for Health Wagon staff and other health care providers. While some long COVID symptoms can be neurological, Smiddy said some symptoms can be treated medically or by exercise and good health practices.
The Health Wagon’s X-ray and lung services can help patients determine if they can return to work or if they may be medically eligible for services such as Medicaid or Social Security disability, Smiddy added.Smiddy and Tyson said that Move Mountains Medical Mission’s partnership with the Virginia Dental Foundation’s Mission of Mercy dental care events in Southwest Virginia will continue. Tyson said the Health Wagon has applied to participate in a summer program where armed forces medical teams practice emergency deployments by offering human medical care and veterinary services for pets. She said the 2019 program was a success, with people coming to get pets treated and vaccinated leading to many getting needed medical care for themselves too.
“We’re excited about what we can do, we’re excited that it’s free health care, and we’re excited that it’s the Health Wagon,” said Smiddy.
If she’d had it her way Andrea Ruzicova would have been in Slovakia instead of running around Auckland.
It’s been three years since she last saw her parents and brother back in her country of birth but this year a lack of MIQ spots again scuttled her plans to visit them.
She says the disappointment was just another blow inflicted by a pandemic that has caused so many struggles for so many people, and decided she could do something to help.
So she strapped on her sneakers and ran a marathon, raising more than $2500.
Andrea Ruzicova competed in the Auckland marathon in January to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation.
The Covid pandemic has struck a double blow to New Zealand charities as it increases demand for their services, yet stops much-needed fundraising events from taking place.
When Ruzicova ran the Auckland Marathon in January – the morning of the red traffic light announcement – the event had already been postponed from October 2021. She’d trained during lockdowns and through her summer holidays, and completed the run in four hours and 20-something minutes.
It was a tough slog and she’d do it again, especially as it benefits the Mental Health Foundation, a charity that offers mental health education.
“I admit I do struggle sometimes – to an extent I handle it my own ways – and running has helped me a lot to get through those times.”
The marathon is the largest fundraiser of the year for the foundation and normally raises about $200,000. This year it took in about $80,000.
Its chief executive Shaun Robinson says the rolling cancellations and postponements of the country’s running-for-charity events will see the foundation miss out on about $300,000 worth of fundraising this year. It typically receives about $500,000 annually.
Chris Skelton/Stuff
The Mental Health Foundation’s Shaun Robinson says the demand for mental health support has skyrocketed.
While many events have pivoted to online versions – where sponsored participants run their courses – participation has dropped dramatically and the trickle-down effect is hurting the organisations that rely on the money.
Robinson says 50 per cent of the charity’s income stems from donations and the cancellation of events was affecting the organisation’s bottom line.
“Demand for mental health support is growing about 20 per cent a year and government funding sources aren’t keeping pace.”
This year’s money was to be used for work including suicide prevention, training and resources to help people support others they’re worried about, and school programmes.
“The demand is increasing at the same time resources are decreasing both because of Covid-19.”
While the recently announced Events Transition Support Payment scheme helps organisers of major events recoup some costs should Covid force cancellations, Robinson says it does nothing to help the charities that would have benefited from fundraisers – an issue that has been overlooked.
Ideally the government would top up the missing funds or offer a similar scheme for charities, but in the meantime he’s urging people to donate regardless.
“Cut out the event and just give us the money. We’d be very grateful and use it for the purposes we would have done through the event.”
Jason Dorday/Stuff
The Auckland Marathon celebrated its 30th anniversary in January.
Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector Priyanca Radhakrishnan acknowledged the pandemic has made things particularly challenging for charities.
The government has provided the $36 million Community Capability and Resilience Fund to help community organisations recover from the impacts of Covid-19, and charities are also eligible for schemes like the Covid Support Payment, since fundraising counts as revenue.
“In addition, the Lottery Covid-19 Community Wellbeing Fund ($40 million) was similarly responsive to the challenges communities across Aotearoa we’re facing as a result of Covid 19. Through this funding there was support for youth mental health initiatives at a community level.”
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokeswoman Liz Vallieres said the events transition support payment scheme acts like an insurance scheme whereby most of the unrecoverable costs incurred by the event organiser are covered.
“But if the event does not go ahead then some suppliers and benefactors will ultimately miss out. This is the same outcome as normal insurance arrangements when events are cancelled.”
Jason Dorday/Stuff
The Auckland Marathon is the Mental Health Foundation’s biggest fundraiser and normally raises about $200,000. This year it took in about $80k.
The scheme has been extended until the end of January 2023 to encourage event organisers to continue organising large scale events, she said.
Fundraising Institute of New Zealand’s executive director Michelle Berriman said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was immediate for the charity sector.
Like Robinson, she says the support payment scheme is a good start in supporting event organisers but it doesn’t help charities that rely on the money from cancelled events.
The participation events like those the Mental Health Foundation benefit from are different from annual appeal days or other fundraising events as they tend to draw in people who don’t otherwise support a charity.
“People who take part in these events do this for close personal reasons, often through personal experience, or in memory of a loved one.
“We’re reminding these amazing, kind people that the way they support charities has changed but the reason why hasn’t. “
All supervisors in Ontario must complete a basic occupational health and safety awareness training program within one week of performing work as a supervisor. This is required by Ontario Regulation 297/13 “Occupational Health and Safety Awareness Training” made under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”). This 1-hour training session fulfills that requirement.
In this session you will learn about:
The duties of employers and supervisors under the OHSA.
The duties and rights of workers under the OHSA.
The concept of the Internal Responsibility System in relation to the duties of workplace stakeholders.
The powers and functions of health and safety representatives and joint health and safety committees under the OHSA.
The roles of the Ministry of Labour Training and Skills Development and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board in occupational health and safety.
How to recognize, assess, control and evaluate workplace hazards.
This training does not replace any sector specific, hazard specific, or competency specific training.
For details on our Worker OHS Awareness training session please visit here.
Type
This program will be conducted as a live webinar and will not be recorded
Length
1 hour
Agenda
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (ET) Program
Audience
Managers, supervisors, OHS professionals, in-house legal counsel and business owners
Cost
This session costs $95 + HST per registrant A secured online payment link will follow after registration
CANCELLATION POLICY
Registration fees are not refundable. A credit may be issued in certain circumstances
No credits will be issued for no shows
No credits will be issued for cancellations less than 24 hours before a course
Participants can request a one-time deferral and the credit must be used before the end of the calendar year. Requests for a deferral must be made 24 hours prior to the start of the course. If the course is only offered once that year, the credit can be applied to another OHS course within that same calendar year
In the event that Fasken cancels a course, the participant can choose either a credit or a refund for the course amount
HOUSTON – The Executive Vice President at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. James McDeavitt, said Harris County is currently at a “medium risk” with COVID, and he expects over the next few weeks that it will be considered low risk, despite people gathering at large events like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
“We are still in the upper-medium range for the daily admissions to hospitals, so we’re still seeing a steady stream of patients being admitted to our hospitals. The numbers are coming down very rapidly, and my guess is, in the next couple weeks or so, we will probably get into low risk for that metric as well and be completely green for Harris County,” Dr. McDeavitt said.
The metrics are from the CDC, which showed that the calculations that were updated on Friday determined that the majority of the country has a low transmission and therefore it’s safe to remove masks.
McDeavitt said the rodeo is also safe with only one caveat.
Ad
“If you are healthy, if you don’t have risk factors, if you’re not undergoing cancer chemotherapy, if you’re not immune suppressed, more importantly, if you’re not living with or exposed to someone that is at risk,” McDeavitt said.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Education predicts COVID deaths and ICU hospitalizations will drastically drop in a few months.
Copyright 2022 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers evidenced that messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are safe in pregnancy, with lower rates of significant adverse event following immunization (AEFIs) in pregnant women than non-pregnant females.
Multiple research works have published positive recommendations for mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy, based on the evidence of high efficacy in pre-authorization clinical trials. However, in the absence of a contemporaneous control group to enable comparison with background rates of AEFIs and comparisons based solely on historical rates of AEFIs, apprehensions surrounding the safety of mRNA vaccines during pregnancy are still lurking around.
The Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network, established during the 2009 influenza pandemic, has been monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety in Canada since the vaccine rollout in December 2020 to provide rapid, real-time safety data.
The CANVAS actively follow-up individuals with significant health events and actively enrolls control group(s) to enable comparisons with unvaccinated individuals in a similar time frame.
About the study
In the present study, researchers recruited pregnant and non-pregnant females aged 15-49 years, as of 4 November 2021, under the ‘vaccinated’ and ‘control’ cohorts in Canada to evaluate the safety profile of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.
The females in the vaccinated cohort had received the first dose of a vaccine within seven days before enrolling for the study. They had an active email address and telephone number and could communicate in English or French. They reported the occurrence of AEFIs over an email after seven days following each dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and at seven months after their first vaccine dose. The control group participants were unvaccinated and reported significant health events that occurred seven days, 28 days, and six months after enrolling in the study.
All the participants had to report injection site reactions; however, only those who indicated having a significant health event had to provide further details.
The researchers analyzed two types of exposures for the study analysis:
vaccination status among pregnant people;
pregnancy status among vaccinated people.
Two endpoints were analyzed, including ‘significant’ and ‘serious’ health events, including common and uncommon symptoms following the first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The former is defined as a new or worsening of a health event sufficient to cause work/school absenteeism or medical consultation in the previous seven days, and the latter describes any event resulting in hospitalization.
Likewise, they analyzed three vaccine groups:
BNT162b2,
mRNA-1273, and
any mRNA vaccine.
They also examined associations between the outcomes and the exposures, using two sets of univariate/multivariate (MV) logistic regression models. When fitting MV models, they adjusted known or expected covariates such as age group, prior COVID-19 infection, and trimester of pregnancy, as appropriate.
Lastly, they conducted two sensitivity analyses to evaluate the robustness of the findings.
Study findings
Significant health events were lower in pregnant people than in age-matched non-pregnant vaccine recipients. Among pregnant females, AEFI was higher in those who received the second dose of the mRNA-1273 vaccine. However, there was no difference in AEFIs after either dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.
Initial clinical trials of the mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 vaccines have reported relatively high rates of AEFIs compared with most routinely used vaccines, including higher rates for dose two than dose one.
The current study analysis revealed similar patterns among pregnant females. Although the analysis specifically quantified the significant and serious AEFI rates in this population for each of the mRNA vaccines, the lower rate of significant AEFIs among pregnant people, compared with vaccinated non-pregnant females, revealed interesting insights.
During pregnancy, dynamic immunologic adaptations occur, for instance, a skewed response towards a T helper cell 2 (Th2)-dominant state. Since mRNA vaccines have specifically elicited a Th1-biased immune response, the Th2-bias during pregnancy may be partially responsible for this lower rate of significant AEFIs.
Conclusions
Considering the high rate of complications related to COVID-19 in pregnancy, it is crucial to maximize vaccine coverage in this at-high risk population for the protection of both the pregnant female and her young infant. Immunized mothers pass on antigen-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 via placenta or breast milk.
Overall, the study data appropriately informed about the reactogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy. This information should be considered alongside effectiveness and immunogenicity data to make appropriate recommendations about the best use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. The long-term data from this cohort following a six-month follow-up, when available, could also prove quite useful. Similar data from countries where the ChAdOx-S vaccines are used could provide a complete overview of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy.
In the future, research studies should identify whether the observed reduced reactogenicity of non-COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in pregnant people in this study is a feature of the vaccine platform or these specific vaccines.
*Important notice
medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Enda Craig was taken by ambulance to Letterkenny University Hospital at around 1am on May 11, 2019. He was suffering from atrial fibrillation, a condition that induces an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm. The condition can lead to blood clots. When it strikes, the impact of the faster heartbeat can be extremely frightening. It was his fourth time being admitted for this condition. Mr Craig is 74. At the hospital, he was placed on a trolley in a cubicle behind a curtain to await examination.
Various tests were taken while he was in the cubicle. After thirty-eight minutes, he says the curtain was “pulled back by a female uniformed staff member who entered the cubicle and addressed him aggressively”. This was the clinical nurse manager (CNM) on duty. She told him the cubicle was required for another patient. Mr Craig said he was a patient waiting to be examined. The CNM, according to Mr Craig, asked if he was refusing to leave. He agreed to relocate to a row of seats near the nurse manager’s station. The CNM insists she acted entirely professionally in the exchange.
He was moved to a row of seats near the nurse manager’s station.
A report compiled by the hospital on what happened thereafter described how Mr Craig “walked up and down the treatment area of the ED (Emergency Department) on a number of occasions passing close to where the CNM was sitting at her desk”. He “stood and leaned towards the CNM and pointed his finger into her face for 34 seconds.”
CCTV footage
The report, based on CCTV footage stated that the CNM “is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner.” There was no audio with the CCTV footage, but the report stated that Mr Craig walked past the nurse’s station nine times over the following 15 minutes which “caused a sense of anxiety among members of the clinical staff present in the ED at that time.”
The CNM stated: “I was very anxious and upset at the verbal abuse and the intimidation I had felt while [we were] trying our best within our limited resources to care for the patients and others.”
Mr Craig went home later that morning, his condition having been diagnosed as “low risk”. He made a complaint to the hospital over how he had been treated. The hospital appointed an emergency medicine consultant to investigate the complaint. The consultant compiled a twenty-five page report based on CCTV footage and interviews with a number of witnesses. Mr Craig’s complaint was not upheld and the report presented him as being unreasonable and aggressive. Mr Craig denied this and said that some witnesses had not been interviewed.
There followed a protracted process in which Mr Craig requested a whole raft of documents, many through Freedom of Information. At one point, he received a copy of the CCTV footage.
“I was later told that I never should have got that,” he says. “But I had put in for a lot of stuff and that came back in some of it.”
The footage did not correlate with how it had been analysed and presented in the complaint investigation.
Complaint to ombudsman
Mr Craig complained to the Ombudsman over how his case had been dealt with. After another protracted period, the Ombudsman reported back to him last December. “We are not entirely convinced that some of the key comments in the hospital’s initial complaint response to you could be supported by the relevant recorded CCTV footage,” investigator Willie O’Doherty reported to him.
In addition, in response to a number of questions, the hospital informed us that it is unclear as to which witnesses were consulted and on what basis they were chosen. Furthermore, it has emerged that a number of key witnesses were not consulted about the complaint.
The letter went on: “Your calm tenacity – and patience – in pursuing matters and seeking improvements has achieved a positive outcome, not just in terms of you receiving an apology, and the retraction of the initial report, but also in the fact that your complaint has provided an opportunity to put things right for other patients and families.”
Enda Craig received an apology and his complaint was praised for providing an opportunity to put things right for other patients and families.
A spokesperson for the Saolta Hospital group, of which Letterkenny is a member, said that on foot of the Ombudsman’s request, the group is undertaking a review of the hospital’s complaint handling processes.
“Listening to the experiences of those who use our services can provide unique insights into standards of care and offers opportunities to improve the quality and safety of health services in a way that will deliver measurable benefits for patients and service users.”
Mr Craig has received his apology. His condition has seen him return to the hospital since the fateful night of May 2019.
“I got on fantastic,” he says of the visit.
Members of staff came in to take a look at me. They must have heard I was the boy who made the complaint, they were tripping over me to look after me.
“I sent a letter to the hospital afterwards thanking them.”
Doha (AFP) – FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar will become a “benchmark” for holding future global sporting events during a health crisis.
The Qatari organisers of the 32 nation event that starts November 21 and runs till December 18 said they are “cautiously optimistic” it will be the first mass gathering of sports fans for a global sports event since the coronavirus pandemic erupted two years ago.
Spectators have largely been forbidden from attending last year’s Tokyo Summer Olympics — save for a few events outside the Japanese capital — and the ongoing Winter Olympics in China.
FIFA announced this week that requests have been made for 17 million tickets for the first World Cup in the Arab region and sought to reassure fans about safety measures during an online health conference organised by the Qatar authorities.
Football has a duty “to make sure this not only the best World Cup ever but also the healthiest World Cup ever,” Infantino said in a recorded statement for the event.
He added that the health and security standards will be “a benchmark for future sporting events of this scale.”
The same message was given by World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who highlighted the “unique challenges” faced by organisers because of the pandemic.
WHO has been working with the Qatar government on health security, infectious diseases, food safety, co-ordination and communication during the World Cup.
“The lessons learned from Qatar’s experience in this World Cup will help us all in designing health and safety measures for other large scale events,” Tedros added.
Neither FIFA nor the Qatar organisers, who have spent billions of dollars preparing for the event, have said what would happen if a new coronavirus wave threatens the event.
But Hassan Al Thawadi, director general of the government’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said: “While the pandemic is still very much here with us, we can now see real light at the end of the tunnel.
“In our eyes, the pandemic has given Qatar 2022 a new significance. Our World Cup may well be the first time that the world can properly come together to celebrate its passion for football.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we may be the country that hosts the first true gathering of global fans since the start of the crisis,” added Thawadi.
