Hi Everyone! I've been perusing the internet this week and have come across some articles I think will be of interest to any one of us who cares for others, whether professionally or personally.
The first of these is a wonderfully well written report on young caregivers created by three UBC researchers for the Vanier Institute of the Family. Entitled, Young Carers in Canada: The Hidden Costs and Benefits of Young Caregiving, this article explores topics including the incidence of young caregiving in Canada, the exceptional nature of the work, the age range of young carers, the ways in which early caregiving can disrupt "normal" development, factors that mediate the young carers' experience, the consequences of early caregiving, ways of supporting young carers and their families, and the need for public policy to respond to their plight.
The second article, Doctor and Patient: Can Doctors Learn Empathy?, was published in the New York Times blog. It cites new research on empathy training for resident physicians and finds that physicians like other helping professionals can, of course, learn empathic responsiveness.
A third piece, When It's the Nurse Who Needs Looking After, also from the New York Times blog, speaks of the extraordinary financial consequences of nurses' stress on the American health care system.
Fourth, is a thought-provoking Wall Street Journal interview, The Medication Generation, with Katherine Sharpe, author of Coming of Age on Zoloft, about the long term effects of antidepressant use on adolescents.
A fifth article, from the New York Times, written by a health psychologist from SickKids in Toronto, focuses on the accumulated grief of physicians and it's impacts on patient care and on the physician's life and family. When Doctors Grieve cites a recent study of oncologists' responses to patient loss in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
And, finally, an article on exercise prescriptions from healthzone.ca, Physicians Turn to Exercise Prescriptions to Prevent and Treat Chronic Conditions, caught my eye. It's emphasis on reducing symptoms and risk factors through exercise rather than medication, and its link to Toronto's Dr Mike Evans' new-to-me website, My Favourite Medicine, made it worth the read.
May these articles stimulate new thoughts and discussions as we move through the summer whether we're reading in a hammock by the lake, riding the Skytrain to work, or relaxing on the deck with a cup of iced tea. Cheers!
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