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The Globe and Mail •

How a doctor with iron deficiency shops for groceries

Welcome to The Globe’s series, What’s in my cart?, where we ask Canadians how they stock their kitchens. Have your own personal grocery story? Share it here.

During her second trimester of pregnancy, Justyna Bartoszko’s shortness of breath and fatigue became undeniable.

She, like one in four women, had become iron deficient during her pregnancy, and her levels of the mineral reached so low that she became anemic.

“After I had my iron infusion, it was really remarkable how much better I felt,”...
The Globe and Mail •

Program to improve health care for marginalized populations puts Black physicians in racialized communities

Marie Claud Felicien immigrated to Canada from St. Lucia as a teenager in 2000. As newcomers not yet covered by public health insurance, her family had to pay $60 to $70 out-of-pocket for appointments, Ms. Felicien said.

That experience informed how Ms. Felicien treated her patients when she worked as a nurse and now shapes the ethos at Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WHIWH), a community health centre for racialized women in Toronto, where she serves as director of primary health care services
The Globe and Mail •

Program to improve health care for marginalized populations puts Black physicians in racialized communities

Marie Claud Felicien immigrated to Canada from St. Lucia as a teenager in 2000. As newcomers not yet covered by public health insurance, her family had to pay $60 to $70 out-of-pocket for appointments, Ms. Felicien said.

That experience informed how Ms. Felicien treated her patients when she worked as a nurse and now shapes the ethos at Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WHIWH), a community health centre for racialized women in Toronto, where she serves as director of primary health care services
The Globe and Mail •

Suicide-prevention initiative trains people to provide care within their own communities

A teenager who loved to act and sing, Lucas Rushton performed at his high school in Truro, N.S., and with the youth theatre program at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, the largest professional theatre company in Atlantic Canada. His passions in music, theatre and film were wide and varied; he loved Elvis and the Trailer Park Boys.

Lucas had a lot of plans, says his mother, Laureen Rushton, including studying performing arts at Sheridan College. “Someday, he planned to make it to Broadway. That was my
The Globe and Mail •

Kids Help Phone launches initiative for Black youth

Kids Help Phone is launching a new initiative, RiseUp, that aims to provide more culturally informed and accessible mental-health services to Black youth across the country.

The services include free wellness support that Black youth can access 24/7 by texting RISE to 686868, the Kids Help Phone number.

“When youth text RISE to that number, they will be paired with a crisis responder that knows the youth is Black and can give them services that are tailored to them,” said Barbara Ukwuegbu, the
The Globe and Mail •

JAMP Pharma Group to acquire 100,000 square feet of Pharmalab Inc. manufacturing space

Quebec-based JAMP Pharma Group says it will acquire a large manufacturing facility in the province in a bid to boost pharmaceutical production in Canada, which is faced with thousands of drug shortages.

The purchase from Pharmalab Inc., announced Thursday, is pending approval by the Superior Court of Quebec. It is set to add more than 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space to the portfolio of JAMP, which hopes to repatriate the production of more than 100 different new generic drugs in the
The Globe and Mail •

New program trains barbers as mental-health first responders for Black communities

“I started with a goat that my grandfather bought. I would style the tuft of hair on its head and cut it,” Ms. Thomas said.

Since immigrating to Canada in 2013, Ms. Thomas has continued her passion, trading a goat for the heads of her clients at Klean Kut Barbershop and Salon in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. There, she says she sees some clients weekly, and like many barbers and hairdressers, has built deep relationships through her practice.

It’s that barber-client rapport that Self Care
The Globe and Mail •

Non-profit aims to bridge gap between Black health-care professionals and patients

Despite completing a master’s degree in clinical psychology two years ago, Myriam Georges-Estigène was struggling to find permanent work. So in April, she decided to take matters into her own hands and start her own clinic.

To help get the word out, Ms. Georges-Estigène, an Ottawa-based Black psychotherapist, listed her private practice, Peace by Piece Counselling and Psychotherapy, on the Black Healthcare Professionals Network’s directory. This public database of Black doctors and health care
The Globe and Mail •

Ontario small-business owners grappling with ‘overwhelming stress’ over effects of COVID-19 pandemic

Small-business owners in Ontario are struggling in a mental-health “echo pandemic” and lack the resources to deal with employee and self-burnout, a report from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has found.

Mind the Gap, released on Tuesday, examines the economic effects of COVID-19 and how a lack of mental-health program funding has affected small businesses.

“Many of the small-business owners in the chamber network feel that they have been left on the front lines of the mental-health crisis afte
The Globe and Mail •

Majority of racialized Canadian employees have faced workplace racism during their careers, study shows

The majority of racialized Canadians have experienced racism at work, including workplace harassment and professional inequities, a new study shows.

The study by global advocacy group Catalyst surveyed more than 5,000 racialized and ethnic women, men, transgender and non-binary employees in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Britain and the United States. It showed that 66 per cent of people surveyed have experienced racism in their career, with 54 per cent of workers reporting that

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