Mental health is deteriorating quickly and significantly globally post-COVID. Though there were already over 1 billion people living with mental disorders pre-pandemic, in the first year of COVID-19 alone, the prevalence of anxiety and depression soared by 25% worldwide. In light of the chronic shortages of mental health provider and resources, along with disruptions of available health services caused by the pandemic and COVID-related restrictions, technology is widely believed to hold the key to addressing rising mental health crises. However, hurdles such as fragmented and often suboptimal patient protection measures substantially undermine technology’s potential to address the global mental health crises effectively, reliably, and at scale. To shed light on these issues, this paper aims to discuss the post-pandemic challenges and opportunities the global community could leverage to improve society’s mental health en masse.

(Re)visiting the testimony exhibition part of Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo, I focus on one testimony in particular. This testimony was given by a survivor of the “comfort women” system, a state-sponsored regime of military sexual exploitation and core institution in the Empire of Japan’s expansion 1932–1945. The testimony was then withheld before the exhibition opened. I approach this “withheld testimony” as an invocation of rupture to the time, space, and positionalities informing the museum narrative. The paper interrogates the interplay of the survivor’s act of withholding her testimony, the curatorial decision to represent the absence that followed on the withholding, and the disruption to the museum narrative that the withholding prompts. By exploring the withheld testimony as a speaking silence, visible emptiness, and present absence, the paper offers a rethinking of model victimhood under the comfort women system.

The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of older medicinal cannabis consumers and those advising them on older Canadians’ experiences accessing cannabis and information about it, as well as how stigma may influence their experiences. A concurrent triangulation mixed methods design was used. The design was qualitatively driven and involved conducting semi-structured interviews with older adults and advisors and developing a survey for older adults. We used a Qualitative Descriptive approach for the analysis of qualitative data and descriptive statistics for quantitative survey data. Findings demonstrate that many older adults are accessing information about cannabis for medical purposes from retailers, either because they are reticent to talk to their healthcare professionals or were rebuffed when bringing up the subject. We recommend cannabis education be required for healthcare professionals working with older persons and that future research examines their perspectives on medicinal cannabis and older adults.

Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) has been widely used for a broad range of mental health problems for several decades and has been researched extensively. Its techniques are relatively easy to learn and follow in treatment protocols. Many new CBT-based psychotherapies have been developed that go further than traditional CBT, some specifically addressing personality disorders. These so-called third-wave approaches target emotional responses to situations by using strategies such as mindfulness exercises and acceptance of unpleasant thoughts and feelings (observing thoughts as ‘from afar’). In this article, we discuss the historical context of these therapies, dissect common and specific factors in some treatment modalities often used to treat personality disorders, and suggest potential future directions for research and treatment.

In this manuscript, we discuss a systematic approach that healthcare facilities can adopt to prepare to identify, confirm, and safely manage highly pathogenic avian influenza in the healthcare setting.

In the aftermath of the 2022 Pakistan flooding, disaster management faced critical challenges, particularly in mental health support. This study analyzed an incident where eighteen internally displaced individuals lost their lives in a bus fire. The current approach involves a comprehensive analysis of the incident, exploring the difficulties encountered in managing relief efforts, and providing mental health support. The study aims were to evaluate existing mental health support mechanisms, to identify challenges in disaster management, and to propose recommendations for future preparedness. Recommendations include enhancing disaster response training, integrating mental health services into primary health care, and prioritizing community resilience. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of disaster management in resource-constrained regions.