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Native men were twice as likely to die prematurely from avoidable causes and native women were 21/2 times as likely, the study found. The highest risk was found among First Nations members between 25 and 34 years of age. The risks for both men and women fell substantially when education and income were taken into account, suggesting, the researchers conclude, that socioeconomic factors "explain a substantial share" of the disparity. The new numbers follow the report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission earlier this year, which identified lingering health effects as a legacy of residential schools, and called on the federal government to take action to close the health gap and to provide sustainable funding for aboriginal healing centres and the integration of indigenous medicine in health care. For Josee Lavoie, the director of the Manitoba First Nations Centre for Aboriginal Health Research at the University of Manitoba, the results are sadly familiar.

She called the numbers "shocking," but suspects they actually underreport the disparity because the census undercounts aboriginal people, who represent a disproportionate percentage of the country's homeless population and those that are "highly mobile." "To me, this is compelling evidence that we need to take serious the recommendations of the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission]," said Dr. Smylie, director of Well Living House, an indigenous action research centre at Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital. It is also important, Dr. Smylie said, to remember the link between alcohol and drug use and unresolved complex trauma when looking at the causes of death. The Statistics Canada study covers the period between June, 1991, and the end of 2006, and includes individuals 25 and older. It divides "avoidable mortality" into two groups: preventable deaths caused by factors such as injuries; and treatable mortalit

which is a death that potentially could have been averted by screening, early detection and successful treatment, such as tuberculosis and female breast cancer.

"Whether you're in a healthcare facility, a manufacturing facility, driving a vehicle - if you're tired, the risks of mistakes are going to go up." Two studies comparing eightand 12-hour schedules during day and night shifts found that 12hour night shifts were associated with more physical fatigue, smoking or alcohol use, according to a 2004 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's the law of diminishing returns," said Liane Davey, vicepresident of team solutions with Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge, which specializes in talent recruitment and development.

"We think that we're staying and doing more and being more productive; but the negative outcome of doing that actually means our core quality suffers." Irregular schedules - such as switching from a block of night shifts to day shifts - can result in sleep disturbance which can become chronic, Mustard noted. "If you build up a period of disturbed sleep ... this is somewhat different from fatigue, although in a sense the consequence is kind of the same. "If we can't rest, we're not renewing our cognitive and physical capacities."

German-born Moritz Erhardt was a week from completing a work placement at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London when he died in 2013. A British coroner said the 21-year-old intern died of an epileptic seizure that may have been triggered by fatigue. Erhardt's case sparked widespread speculation that the notorious long working hours and competitive environment at top investment banks were to blame for his death. Matt Ferguson said his 22-yearold brother, Andy, died in a headon collision in 2011 after logging excessive hours as an unpaid intern at an Edmonton radio station.

When Jeff and Andrea Archibald launched their design agency, the couple initially worked from home and logged significant extra time to establish their business. "We definitely hit 60-hour work weeks mainly because when there's two of you, you have to do all the billable work," recalled Jeff Archibald. "When you're starting out, your rate's a little lower, and then you have to balance out with all the business side of things, like invoicing. You don't have anybody on staff that can do those kinds of things, so you're basically wearing all of the hats," he said. "What ends up happening is you have all your meetings and your phone calls ... during the day and you do your production work at night - and that's not just us. A lot of our friends are in similar situations."

The Archibalds are now part of a team of seven at their Edmonton custom Web and branding firm, Paper Leaf. Weekly meetings help assess key tasks to accomplish within a given day and week - and avoid overbooking. "One of the singularly biggest concerns I think we all have is balancing the amount of workload so that we can have a profitable company - but also not overwork people," Jeff Archibald said.

"When you overwork, you're staring down the barrel of burnout. It's a real short-term gain." Mustard said employees logging overtime should be aware of the pace of their work and ensure they are taking breaks. "Being thoughtful about nutrition, making sure that you're not missing meals is very important. And then rest. Not shortening your chance to have sleep."

She said her investigation was prompted by "a number of complaints" detailing concerns about the way psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug dependence and post-traumatic stress disorder are triggered by paramedic job duties. Among their responsibilities are providing services to people in dire need of medical attention - some well past help - and entering harrowing crime scenes like Savoia encountered with Conter.

"I cannot tell you how many times I have responded to a call for a child that was physically abused," Savoia said. "Those types of calls crawl under your skin." The calls can be hard to forget and to talk about, he said. Plus, not everyone is willing to discuss gruesome experiences with staff psychologists or peer-support teams.

In response to news of the ombudsman's investigation, TPS chief Paul Raftis said in an email to the Star, that the TPS "welcomes" the investigation and is "actively supporting her office in this matter." The (www.tema.ca») Conter Memorial TrustEND, which Savoia founded as a way to provide mental health support for emergency workers, estimated that between 16 and 24 per cent of these workers will experience PTSD.

Many, including former president of the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada Michael Nolan, counted Toronto among the municipalities leading the way when it comes to mental health services for paramedics. Nolan pointed to Toronto's in-house psychologist and peer-support teams as innovative ways that the city is trying to curb operational stress. "There is a lot to be learned from Toronto," he said.

Still, Savoia welcomed Crean's investigation, saying, "even if they are doing things right, the investigation will help them learn how to do things better."

The weekend attack on a nurse at Abbotsford Hospital, recently fined $75,000 for failing to protect workers from violence, is the latest in a string of assaults on B.C. nurses and doctors that many say should be tackled differently. "It is a blatant lack of compliance, that's a big part of the problem," said David Durning, Senior Labour Relations Officer with the Health Sciences Association of B.C.

Some Unwelcome Truths About Gardisil

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Gardisil applies to only four of over a hundred known strains of HPV

No Guarantee of Vaccine Efficacy and Lots of Risks

nobody in America can sue vaccine companies

unmet needs for assistance are associated with higher risk for injuries, having depression, falls and institutionalization.

Personal support workers in the home care sector can be paid as little as $12.50/hour compared to hourly rates of $18 to $23 for their hospital-based colleagues.

Similar disparities have also been observed for other care workers, including registered nurses.

In addition, home care workers often do not get steady hours

According to Stella Yeadon, a representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, this is largely because union organizing is very challenging in the home care sector. Unlike the hospital environment where workers are in a single building, home care workers rarely meet one another.

support for family caregivers was notably absent from both Ontario’s Action Plan for Healthcare and the year-one update released last month. Support for caregivers is part of Ontario’s new Seniors Strategy, but it remains to be seen how much of this strategy will translate into action.

According to a report from the Ontario Health Coalition, another contributor to lower wages is the Ontario government’s procurement policy for Community Care Access Centres (CCAC), which requires CCACs to contract out home care services. While competitive bidding for contracts has been somewhat successful in keeping costs down for CCACs, it has done so largely by “driving down wages,”

Low wages and limited benefits across an entire sector raise concerns about the possibility of recruiting skilled care workers. “

low wages could pose real barriers to recruiting and retaining staff.

Health care workers face substantial health risks as part of their work, due to their exposure to infectious diseases, violence from patients/residents with dementia, allergic reactions from chemical agents, and injuries resulting from lifting patients.

There is currently limited data on the occupational health risks of delivering care in the home. However, some care may be riskier in the home, where workers are more likely to be without either backup from other staff or mechanical assistance (such as patient lifts), as compared to workers in a hospital or a long-term care facility.

turnover as workers leave home care for higher paying jobs at hospitals is bad for patients

patients who need home care do not have families to care for them

there’s no one to care for them but me and they need more help.”

lower wages and riskier environments raise the possibility that the quality of care may be negatively affected as services are moved from hospital to community settings.

But the health consequences of PTSD can be calamitous - suicide rates are high - and the resources to deal with the problem are not keeping up with the surging demand. As it stands, the federal and provincial health systems are not equipped to get first responders the help they urgently need. As federal employees, Mounties can turn to the overburdened Veterans Affairs ministry, which is plagued by delays and inefficiency. Their local and provincial counterparts aren't even that lucky. They face a patchwork of support programs that vary widely according to region.

Some provinces include PTSD in their workplace injury compensation plans; others don't. In some places, certain classes of workers, such as nurses, aren't covered. Last month, the federal military ombudsman, Gary Walbourne, called for the creation of a national "concierge service" - a onestop shop for the Department of National Defence's PTSD sufferers. It's a good idea that should spawn imitators across Canada. Emergency workers perform dangerous, harrowing work on society's behalf, and they are hurting because of it. Governments at all levels have the urgent duty to help them recover.

That provider, K-Bro Linen Systems, has been used for years by AHS to provide medical linen in the Calgary and Edmonton regions, and the health authority planned to expand the contract to include the rest of the province. The executives noted other health regions, including some in Saskatchewan, B.C., Ontario and Quebec, had gone the outsourcing route. But Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said she personally intervened late last year, telling AHS to look at other options since the strategy ran afoul of NDP policy to prevent further privatization of health services. The plan would have led to the elimination of 130 to 140 full-time equivalent jobs at AHS.

"If you want to change the status quo, you should be able to present a business case, and I asked for evidence ... not unlike other decisions I have put on hold or cancelled," Hoffman said in an interview Tuesday. "It lacks understanding of the current government that we want to make sure we consider a variety of options and that was one of the reasons I asked them to stop with the privatization agenda on this." Hoffman's stance was similar to her controversial decision late last year to abruptly cancel an AHS plan to outsource all medical testing in the Edmonton region to a private company. Such moves were cited by former AHS CEO Vickie Kaminski as examples of NDP micromanagement and ideological decision-making that led, in part, to her resignation earlier this year.

Hoffman declined to provide any details on her discussions with Kaminski, but said new AHS CEO Verna Yiu has been "very excited" to look at alternatives. She said the previous Progressive Conservative government had basically forced AHS into privatizing linen by refusing to provide capital funding for anything considered a support service. She suggested her government is willing to put money into such areas, but it is still unclear how those projects will stack up against competing demands for new hospitals, care facilities and a medical testing lab. "Pretending laundry isn't a critical part of patient care, I don't buy that," Hoffman said.

The linen services department posted a disabling injury rate of 12.06 as of January this year, well above the AHS average rate of 3.01. Though the documents declare AHS to be at a "critical point," executive Mauro Chies tried to downplay the concern. "I don't think we are at critical threshold point right now, but it is on our radar," said Chies, vice-president of clinical support services. AHS is looking at a number of infrastructure options, with a decision expected late this year, Chies said. One of those options is a system of four hubs that would likely be located in Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Ponoka and one north central community, such as Athabasca. He suggested the construction bill could come in well below estimates quoted in the documents, because AHS is looking at using older warehouse sites already owned by the government, if possible. The new sites would likely include a high level of automation, which could reduce staffing needs about 50 per cent.