Your hosts, Carmel Kilkenny, Lynn Desjardins and Levon Sevunts.
Workplace mental health
A new survey indicates that over half of Canadian employers don’t have a strategy for dealing with mental health issues in the workplace. The survey was conducted by the Conference Board of Canada. Louise Chénier is the manager of Workplace Health and Wellness Research at the Conference Board of Canada. She says that a third of employers reported that mental health issues did not present a problem in their workplace. Ms. Chénier says the stigma persists, and more discussion of the problems and solutions is necessary. Levon Sevunts spoke to her from Ottawa.
Hospitals bombed in Syria
The United Nations reported that dozens of people were killed in airstrikes on hospitals and schools in northern Syria. It’s not the first time such facilities have been attacked, but it seems the strikes have intensified since Russia became involved in the conflict. Russia denied responsibility for this week’s attacks. One of the hospitals hit was supported by Doctors Without Borders. Lynn Desjardins spoke with Stephen Cornish, a director of the Canadian branch of the organization.
Links between toxic chemicals and pre-term births
Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a professor in the Faculty of Health, at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, has researched the effects of chemicals, many very common ones, on childhood development. His studies show many of these chemcials have clear negative health effects, and should be either removed from use, or more stringently regulated. His latest findings reveal that even low levels of certain chemcials can result in pre-term births, which present a new area of concern. In this excerpt of Marc Montgomery’s interview, Dr. Lanphear begins by describing those concerns.
Photos of the week
Highlights from some of the stories of the past week.
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