Domiciliary hostels, which are less strictly regulated than long-term care facilities, are privately run and operate for profit—and they have been decimated by the pandemic. Photo courtesy the Vitanova Foundation. Long-term care facilities have been decimated by COVID-19, with almost three-quarters of all pandemic-related deaths in Canada occurring within them.
Continue readingAuthor: Megan Linton
Canadian Dimension: ‘Warehouses like this are not the answer’: Exposing the crisis of long-term care in Manitoba
Staff stand in a dormitory at the Manitoba Developmental Centre. Image courtesy of the Archives of Manitoba. Vietnam, New Zealand, China and Canada’s Atlantic provinces have demonstrated that once a population gets to low levels of COVID-19, it is easier to stay there. This is proof that ongoing strict public
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Mental health under neoliberalism: From self-help to CBT
Screen capture taken from an animated short video on the website of the Government of Alberta, entitled Stop Negative Thoughts: Choosing a Healthier Way of Thinking. The provincial government’s health information and tools promote the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy, also called CBT, which is often used to “help people think
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Institutional Legacies of Violence: Neoliberalism and Custodial Care in Ontario
Many residents at the Huronia Regional Centre, an institution for developmentally disabled children operated by the government of Ontario between 1876 and 2009, suffered long-term neglect as well as physical and sexual abuse. Photo by Jim Wilkes/Toronto Star Archives. On April 15, Patty Baird was the first disabled adult living
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘We Have Always Been Disposable’: the Structural Violence of Neoliberal Healthcare
COVID-19 is particularly dangerous for elders, particularly those with chronic illnesses. Photo from Flickr. The marriage of neoliberalism and the medical industrial complex has had disastrous results in Canada, even without the presence of a pandemic. This toxic relationship has led to decades of healthcare cuts, privatization of services, and
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