Today is the day. The day I mute every thinkable combination of words and hashtags across all social media platforms. The day I turn off the television and radio and anything that could have advertisements. The day I wonder if I can detach my retinas by rolling my eyes too hard. Today is Bell Let’s […]
Health Care
Posted inNews + Opinion
NS adds 264 beds for long-term care, needs 1,300
Nova Scotia will build 264 new long-term care beds and replace nearly 1,300 existing beds across the province, premier Iain Rankin announced Friday. Nova Scotia NDP and PC leaders say this plan falls short of what’s needed to support the public long-term care program—which has nearly 1,300 people waiting for a bed. In a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What happened at Northwood?
A year ago this Saturday, April 17, three residents of Northwood, the long-term care centre in the heart of Halifax, died of COVID-19. Fifty more would die in the course of the next six, frantic weeks. While COVID raged inside the facility, the north end complex was sealed off from the surrounding community. The virus […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Greening Nova Scotia’s healthcare system in a COVID-19 world
The grim state of the climate had been in the back of neurosurgeon Sean Christie’s mind for a while, “but as my kids get a bit older and start to ask questions and are much more environmentally conscious than I was at their age, it just kind of hit me: Listen, we have to do […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Health care’s exhausted pain reliever
Editor’s note: In order to protect patient privacy, names and ages have been changed in the scenes Andrew Bethune witnessed while on the job, and times, places and other details have also been obscured. Names, quotes and details from news stories have not been changed. Three in the morning. The glare from the late-night pizza […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Refugee moms at serious risk for postpartum depression
Her first pregnancy is a unique experience in any woman’s life. Welcoming a new family member could be an exciting event, especially for a woman becoming a mother for the first time. However, this isn’t always the case for newcomer Syrian refugee women resettling in Canada. From November 2015 to January 2017, 40,000 Syrian refugees […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ultrasound ‘policy’ one of Nova Scotia’s many failings on abortion access
An Atlantic Canadian province is once again in the news for failure to provide timely access to abortion for pregnant people. Despite the significant changes to abortion policy in Nova Scotia in the past year—the launch of a toll-free hotline for connection to Mifegymiso (medical abortion) prescribers across the province, the creation of a billing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Anti-abortion centre targets trafficking victims
Open Door Women’s Care Centre on Spring Garden Road is once again under scrutiny—this time from an advocate for victims of human trafficking. When The Coast first reported on Open Door back in 2014, it was because the self-identified “faith-based” organization had taken out a series of bus ads that veiled the centre’s anti-abortion policy […]
Posted inLifestyle
Weed and alcohol are too close for comfort in Nova Scotia
The Federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation recommends cannabis be sold separately from booze, in stand-alone stores. That’s the way PEI and New Brunswick are gonna deal with legal weed. It’s an approach endorsed by multiple studies explaining how THC and alcohol exacerbate each other’s effects and intensify injury and fatalities when mixed, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia announces big changes in access to abortions
Doctor referrals will no longer be needed for surgical abortions and pharmacies across Nova Scotia will begin offering free access to the abortion pill, Mifegymiso. The announcement was made Friday by Kelly Regan, minister for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. “We’re supporting more choice for women when it comes to their reproductive […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sinking slowly in the city
The Liberal government’s all-for-nothing budget last month promised $2.4 million to get 20 more doctors. Doctors Nova Scotia told the legislature the day before they needed at least 100 just to break even. Last week, the King’s Investigative Workshop’s “Overburdened” series found access to mental health services for rural Nova Scotians is falling short. But […]
Posted inLifestyle
The quiet crisis of mental health care in Nova Scotia
Sherry Blinkhorn has experienced the effects of mental illness most of her life. From the time she was placed in foster care at age five because her mother and grandmother had severe schizophrenia, she knew of the devastating effects it could have on families and relationships. By 12, she was absorbing issues of Psychology Today, […]