Dr. Brian Goldman explores intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, or ISTDP, a kind of talk therapy that is gaining a reputation for helping long-suffering patients with unexplained symptoms. Dr. Allan Abbass, a psychiatrist at QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax says he has been getting good results helping people get back to work.

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The emotional roots of illness

For patients who survive the COVID ward like Akiva Balter, there’s still a hard road of recovery ahead. But he’s been able to do it from his own home thanks to his wife Carmela and a unique new program run out of Women’s College Hospital.

Home Oxygen

What if there were a pill that could add decades to your life? Would you take it? For thousands of years, people have searched for elixirs that could delay death and extend human life. Could new advances in medicine finally make this a reality? From madcap medicine to cutting-edge science, the quest to unlock the fountain of youth is teeming with dreamers, skeptics and charlatans alike. More episodes are available at: hyperurl.co/unlocking

Introducing: Unlocking the Fountain

Dispatches by two healthcare professionals from the front lines of Alberta’s 4th wave of COVID19: Dr. Raiyan Chowdhury and nurse Michael Gaerlan.

Alberta frontlines

Rabia Khedr is the national director of Disability Without Poverty and has a big personal stake in the upcoming federal election. Rabia and her sister are visually impaired. One brother with an intellectual disability lives in long-term care. Her other brother died of complications following surgery during the pandemic. With more than six million people living with disabilities in this country, Rabia is working to get the next government to listen to their needs, and says implementing the National Disability Benefit is a first step, no matter which party takes the reins.

Rabia's Family

Dr. Brian Goldman visits a rural hospital in Clinton, Ontario that’s been dealing with a nurse shortage for a decade: a shortfall so acute it forced the hospital to close the ER on the Sunday of a busy holiday weekend.

Knife's edge

Long COVID in kids: researchers aren’t certain what causes it and aren’t certain about the numbers. They’re not even sure how to define it. Dr. Brian Goldman meets 11-year-old Alyssa Smyth who has long COVID and talks to Dr. Anu Wadhwa, an infectious disease specialist at SickKids Hospital in Toronto.

Long-COVID Kids

Dr. Brian Goldman travels to Renfrew County north of Ottawa to ride along with community paramedic, Matt Rousselle who provides end-of-life care to patients living in rural and isolated homes.

Paramedics providing palliative care

To predict the future, some people look into crystal balls. And some peer into the past. Dr. Nicholas Christakis is a physician and medical sociologist who is a student of pandemics. His latest book is Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. This week on White Coat Black Art, he talks to Dr. Brian Goldman about how we get past COVID-19 by looking at how we emerged from previous pandemics. He says in the past, outbreaks have led to austerity and a turn to religion, but when we finally do emerge from COVID-19, he says our behaviour will mirror the "roaring 20s" that followed the 1918 pandemic. But he also predicts new challenges, which include coping with a large cohort of people who are newly disabled because of having had COVID-19, and a shift in the workforce that could have long-term impacts on women in particular. Buckle up. We're going back to the post-covid future, this week on White Coat, Black Art.

What history tells us about life after COVID-19

Late last month, BC's heat dome brought record temperatures and caused more deaths in seniors and other vulnerable people than the BC Coroner has (so far) been able to tally. Dr. Brian Goldman talks to Barbara Reed, who took care of a sick and frail family member in the sweltering heat, waiting hours for an ambulance to show up. Jennifer Baumbusch, associate professor at UBC’s School of Nursing and caregiver to family members, talks about the mistakes that were made protecting the most vulnerable members of society, and how unprepared we are for the realities of climate change.

Heat deaths

From 1953 to 1966, Christopher Guest lived at the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, an institution for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. For the most part, places like Huronia may be gone, but their legacy remains: not just in the memories of the patients who lived there, but in the ways health-care continues to treat adults with developmental disabilities.

From victim to advocate

Dr. Brian Goldman celebrates dietary aide Iain White as an unsung hero of the pandemic. During the lockdowns, elderly LTC residents faced loneliness and isolation. Iain stepped up to fill the gap by taking extra time to talk to residents and feed them their meals.

Dietary aide Iain White: unsung hero of the pandemic

Dr. Brian Goldman celebrates an unsung hero of the pandemic: Maria Boutilier, a housekeeper in the ER at the Halifax Infirmary Hospital. Dr. Sam Campbell is a doctor in the ER. He's amazed at what Maria accomplishes all in day's work.

Maria Boutilier: unsung hero of the pandemic

How a late-night visit to the ER led to the creation of a new app that allows people to report experiences of racism in healthcare. Brothers and app founders, Dr. Kamea Lafontaine and Dr. Alika Lafontaine tell the story.

SafeSpace app

Dr. Brian Goldman talks to Karen Townsend, a lawyer and mom from London Ontario who says that her cancer would have been found earlier if she had been able to see her doctor in person, but because of COVID, she was only allowed a virtual visit. Dr. Tony Eskander, a surgical oncologist in Toronto he’s seeing many patients with cancers of the head and neck getting diagnosed at later stages than he’s used to. He talks about the impact.

Delayed diagnosis

CBC Radio's Dr. Brian Goldman takes listeners through the swinging doors of hospitals and doctors' offices, behind the curtain where the gurney lies.

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