Irving Gold is a health care executive.

Occupational therapy in addiction recovery: Making daily life livable

Conditions and Diseases
March 28, 2026

Jonathan first met the health system on the floor of an emergency room.

He had drunk himself into a crisis, and the team did what they are trained to do: stabilize, monitor, and discharge. He got a lecture. He got a referral. He was given an AA meeting list. Then he got on with the long business of suffering.

For years, Jonathan bounced between moments of crisis and well-intentioned medical appointments that …

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Occupational therapy in addiction recovery: Making daily life livable

The trouble with resiliency: It’s time to get to the root causes of health care worker burnout

Conditions and Diseases
December 19, 2021

Over the last several years, there has been an increasing recognition that burnout is rising exponentially among health care workers – and there has been a positive shift in the public understanding of burnout and other mental health issues in general. Unfortunately, the policy response from governments, health care institutions, and policy-makers has been woefully inadequate.

Instead of addressing the root causes of burnout and mental distress among our health care …

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The trouble with resiliency: It’s time to get to the root causes of health care worker burnout

Almost half of health care workers are not doctors and nurses. Health policies must address their burnout too.

Health Policy
November 28, 2021

Vaccination rates are climbing, and COVID-19 cases are decreasing. While this is surely a relief to most of us, many health care workers are bracing themselves for a significant post-pandemic fallout. Far from getting a much-needed reprieve from an emotionally and physically draining 20 months, these professionals will be forced to work under similar strain to deal with the backlog of procedures now being scheduled again.

There is abundant evidence of …

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Almost half of health care workers are not doctors and nurses. Health policies must address their burnout too.

Not all frontline health workers who need priority vaccination are doctors and nurses

Conditions and Diseases
January 16, 2021

Canadians breathed a huge sigh of relief when the federal government approved the first COVID-19 vaccine and saw the first immunizations take place. The end of the pandemic and the prospect of a return to normal, whatever that means, became a real possibility.

Rolling out a national vaccination program will be no small feat. In addition to the basic logistical challenges of moving volatile product throughout the …

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Not all frontline health workers who need priority vaccination are doctors and nurses