Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:26Hi, I'm Leanne Young, and this is CBC News in Depth.
00:00:28In this edition, we'll be taking a look at
00:00:31health stories from across the country. Let's begin with a few
00:00:34stories focused on mental healthcare.
00:00:39At 16, Margaret Bolt was diagnosed
00:00:42with anxiety and depression. Then she started to self harm.
00:00:46I felt like I wasn't being seen or heard and it was very
00:00:50distressing and harmful to me. Her condition got worse as she
00:00:54struggled to access appropriate care. Now,
00:00:57a new report is shedding light on where Canadians are turning
00:01:01for help with mental health and substance use issues. We're
00:01:05seeing more and more patients going to their family doctors
00:01:09and pediatricians.
00:01:10The report found visits to family doctors for
00:01:14psychotherapy and counseling has increased almost 50% since
00:01:182015, while pediatricians saw a 60%
00:01:20jump. For some of my patients, I'm the only place that they
00:01:24can go. Doctor Rita McCracken estimates up to 25% of her
00:01:28patients come to her with mental health disorders and
00:01:32addiction issues. This is not work that family doctors should
00:01:36be doing, but addressing their unique
00:01:39needs, such as longer appointments and
00:01:41ongoing specialized.
00:01:43There is a challenge. I should do it when there is no other
00:01:47option, but in a more ideal situation,
00:01:49I should be able to hand off. But there aren't enough
00:01:53healthcare workers to meet the demand,
00:01:55and patients are up against high costs for private
00:01:59treatment and lengthy wait lists. At one point we had
00:02:02almost up to 1000 people on our wait list
00:02:06at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. They're developing new
00:02:09programs to reach patients quicker. Do people need to be
00:02:13waiting, you know, a year, 2 years to be able to get that
00:02:16in an in person setting or could we offer some of that
00:02:20virtually? Virtual group therapy has
00:02:22helped bring their wait list to less than 100 patients and
00:02:25reduced wait times to a few months. It's been a
00:02:28groundbreaking program that's really changed our flow and and
00:02:32got milk care to a lot more people.
00:02:35As for Margaret, life is improving since seven
00:02:38months in recovery and I haven't harmed myself in almost
00:02:428 months. A positive outcome in a system stretched thin to
00:02:46Shanna Reed, CBC News, Toronto.
00:02:56There's just no help. There's no hope for her. Jenna Dorman's
00:03:00husband looks back on all the ways he tried to get his wife
00:03:04help. The 42 year old Vancouver mother was struggling with
00:03:08postpartum depression after the birth of their second child in
00:03:12early 2024. Medical complications and worries about
00:03:15her new baby caused stress and anxiety for doormen that
00:03:19spiraled into depression and by the summer of 2024,
00:03:22multiple suicide attempts. Her husband and friends
00:03:26frantically
00:03:27built for treatment options. They immediately were faced
00:03:30with long wait lists or the prospect that Dorman would be
00:03:34separated from her baby. As soon as a mother is having
00:03:37suicidal tendencies, they don't. Some of these
00:03:40facilities don't even accept them. They're at risk,
00:03:43so they they won't take that risk on. The only option was to
00:03:47take her to Vancouver General Hospital. Separated from her
00:03:51children, Dorman spent several days on a
00:03:53bed in the corner of the emergency room with just a
00:03:56curtain for privacy.
00:03:58It's not very loving, It's not very warm for a mother
00:04:02to be
00:04:03tossed around and in a medical system where this is she should
00:04:08be with her baby getting help. Jenna's best friend says the
00:04:12mental health support came too late. The week that she
00:04:16committed suicide. It was very tragic. Bird has launched a
00:04:20campaign to raise $32, 000 to fund drop in postpartum
00:04:24support through the Pacific Postpartum Support Society.
00:04:28She's also pushing for a dedicated space for mothers and
00:04:32babies in BC Women's Hospital.
00:04:34Terry Needle mental health unit This BC Conservative MLA's
00:04:38private members bill calls on government to create a strategy
00:04:42for universal access to mental healthcare for women before and
00:04:46after they give birth. It became law last May and set a
00:04:49one year timeline for action. It's disappointing to see that
00:04:53it's been a year and we haven't seen much work on my bill yet.
00:04:57It is so incredibly important to be able to provide those
00:05:01kinds of supports for people. That work is actively underway.
00:05:05The bill obviously
00:05:06has passed and and we are hard at work on it. Jenna's husband
00:05:10and friends envision a place where mothers can be with their
00:05:13children, getting the care they need. A
00:05:16place where she could,
00:05:18um, be with other mothers and be
00:05:22able to
00:05:25just feel loved. Katie Derosa, CBC News, Vic.
00:05:34From across Canada, more young people in distress
00:05:37are reaching out for help at night schools close. Their
00:05:41friends are asleep, their parents are asleep and
00:05:44there's nobody else. Kids help phone says they noticed a 24%
00:05:48increase in overnight texts in the first half of this year.
00:05:52Predominantly the number one issue is anxiety and stress,
00:05:56but a new report on Ontario teens shows signs of progress.
00:06:00More than 11, 000 students from grade 7 to 12
00:06:03completed an anonymous
00:06:04online survey by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
00:06:0946% reported experiencing A moderate to serious level of
00:06:13psychological distress, in this case a decrease. The
00:06:16numbers that we're seeing now in 2025 is more similar to the
00:06:21number that we saw in 2019 pre pandemic.
00:06:24Experts say that may reflect reduced stigma around seeking
00:06:28help. Still, psychological distress levels
00:06:31are nearly double what they were more than a decade ago,
00:06:35well before the pandemic. Doom scrolling is becoming such an
00:06:39like increasingly large problem in young people. Hannah Grover
00:06:43says isolation during the pandemic had an impact,
00:06:46but she had family support and journaling and poetry helped
00:06:50her cope. What started as my own love for poetry,
00:06:53it inspired her to create a youth LED arts program to help
00:06:56others. That feeling of anxiety and helplessness,
00:07:00it's very difficult to transition out of it if you
00:07:03don't have accessible support. Tony Bet Some sources of stress
00:07:07are growing. Cam H found a tenfold rise in online sports
00:07:10betting since 2017. Kids Help Phone says Other concerns range
00:07:14from forest fires and social media to their very futures.
00:07:18And that's why we all have to work together to ensure that
00:07:22they have the support that they need. The Cam H survey also
00:07:26showed an increase in young people accessing mental health
00:07:30services
00:07:31at school. To Shawna Reed, CBC News, Toronto.
00:07:41What kind of future do Albertans want for their
00:07:43province? The upcoming referendum will
00:07:46reveal where voters stand on the ballot is whether to stay
00:07:50in Canada to seek more provincial powers over
00:07:53immigration or whether to push for constitutional change. To
00:07:57learn what the choices mean for you, for Albertans,
00:08:00and for all Canadians, stay tuned to CBC News for full
00:08:04coverage. The Alberta referendum October 19th. Make
00:08:07an informed choice.
00:10:21territory are dealing with long wait times for care. Next up,
00:10:25a few stories focused on the strain the healthcare system faces.
00:18:45Sometimes it can feel like the headlines are filled with
00:18:47stories focused on healthcare challenges or shortcomings,
00:18:50but there are advancements happening every day that are
00:18:53improving our overall health. Let's take a look.
00:21:14Rarely does a cancer drug get a standing ovation from
00:21:17scientists and doctors. And we're all standing there in
00:21:20this massive room crying with and standing. It was really
00:21:24quite wonderful. I just have to say that I'm still emotional
00:21:27about it. For decades, metastatic pancreatic cancer
00:21:31has been one of the deadliest diagnosis. There's still no
00:21:35cure, but now there's New Hope.
00:21:38American Debbie Orcutt has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. As
00:21:42part of a trial, she's been taking the new drug,
00:21:45Durak Exxon Razib. I knew my diagnosis was bad,
00:21:48So what have I got to lose? In a newly published study,
00:21:52500 patients were randomly assigned to receive Draxon
00:21:55racib, or chemotherapy as a second
00:21:58line treatment. On average, the new drug helped people live
00:22:02about twice as long as standard chemotherapy, about 13 months,
00:22:06instead of six to seven. It targets this mutation called
00:22:09Ras, which is
00:22:11driving pancreas cancer in over 95% of the cases and it was
00:22:14thought to be undruggable. You can think of Ras as a family of
00:22:18genes that make proteins acting like on off switches to control
00:22:22cell growth. In pancreatic cancer,
00:22:25one of those switches gets stuck in the on position and
00:22:28keeps telling the cells to grow out of control. Draxon Rasid
00:22:32works by blocking that broken switch,
00:22:35effectively cutting power to the cancer or cut. Was
00:22:38diagnosed 2 years ago. The drug appears to be working.
00:22:42Believe me, it's not lost on me. I just
00:22:44feel like God's given me another chance. You better make
00:22:48the most of it and do all good things. While found to be less
00:22:51toxic than traditional chemotherapy,
00:22:54common side effects of the new drug are blistering skin rashes
00:22:57and mouth sores and some concerns about the side effects.
00:23:01Because the side effects do look like it's going to take a
00:23:04lot of learning on our part as well that people going to
00:23:07afford it. There's no price tag yet. And this drug has not been
00:23:11approved by the FDA or even submitted to Health Canada
00:23:15for review, but doctors we spoke with say
00:23:17if all goes smoothly, patients could have access to
00:23:20this drug in about a year. There is promise for other
00:23:23cancers. Yes, that's right. These rats mutations that we're talking about,
00:23:27they're a big problem in other cancers. So we're talking about
00:23:30lung, colorectal, gynecological and even gastric
00:23:33cancers. Just going back to pancreatic,
00:23:35immunotherapy works in other cancers,
00:23:37but not in pancreatic cancer. So it's possible if we could
00:23:41shut off this Ras mutation, then immunotherapy could also
00:23:44work in pancreatic cancer. Wouldn't that be
00:23:46amazing? All right, Christine, Barack, thank you. Thank you.
00:23:51But when we turn on the AI algorithm,
00:23:53this is what it looks like to use AI in breast cancer
00:23:56screening, we see that this area is
00:23:59becoming with higher risk. Lesion score. Radiologists at
00:24:02Toronto's Women's College Hospital have been using
00:24:06artificial intelligence as another set of eyes for about
00:24:09two years. On the left, the scans the radiologist sees.
00:24:13On the right, the same scans reviewed by AI.
00:24:16We proved that this nation was a malignant nation.
00:24:20Now more research adds extra support for using AI in breast
00:24:25cancer screening. What I wanted to achieve with this study is
00:24:29to improve the screening test for all women. The new study
00:24:34divides more than 100, 000 women in Sweden into two
00:24:37groups. One had their breast scans read by two radiologists,
00:24:42the standard in Europe. The other had AI sort scans based
00:24:46on low and high risk. The great outcome that we have seen
00:24:51is very promising. The findings show that AI is more sensitive,
00:24:55detecting 29% more cancer than the radiologists and catching
00:24:59it before it turns into more aggressive and advanced forms,
00:25:03potentially saving lives. These studies confirm that they pick
00:25:07up things that we don't the human eye doesn't see. Early
00:25:11detection means less burden on the healthcare system,
00:25:15which can translate into thousands of dollars in savings
00:25:18per patient, according to some experts.
00:25:21It also eases radiologist workload. Healthcare and
00:25:25regulators have to move at the speed of cancer,
00:25:28not at the speed of bureaucracy. We actually AI assisted. Breast
00:25:33cancer screening isn't readily available across Canada,
00:25:37something advocates hope to change. We have a helping us to
00:25:41identify more cancer. It's still not a perfect tool. AI
00:25:45can flag false positives, but experts say over time it
00:25:49will become more refined and hope it lands
00:25:52hospitals across the country. Jennifer Legrasse at CBC News
00:25:56Toronto.
00:25:59What? What happened here? A man comes in after a fall,
00:26:01but something's off with his heart. For ER doctor nor Katib,
00:26:04the clock is ticking to find the cause. You're going to
00:26:08cardiovert him now? Yeah. OK, let's do it. In the ER,
00:26:11everything's high stakes. Cases can be complex,
00:26:14and decisions come fast. Researchers wanted to know if
00:26:17artificial intelligence could reason like an ER doctor. And
00:26:21this newly published American research suggests it can,
00:26:24using the newest generation of AI5. Observational test
00:26:28studies found the AI outperformed physician baselines on
00:26:31complicated cases. Its diagnosis was correct roughly 8
00:26:34out of 10 times. It doesn't mean that computers can do
00:26:38medicine. It means that within this narrow task,
00:26:40it can solve diagnosis better than humans, which is exciting,
00:26:44but is only the beginning of the conversation. AI is not
00:26:48going to be a replacement. It might be another tool for us,
00:26:51a great tool for us. At Ontario's Oak Valley Health,
00:26:54they're doing a pilot. So when the AI tool starts,
00:26:57I click on Transcribe, using AI to streamline note taking,
00:27:01basically help me spend more time with the patient,
00:27:04less time on the screen. More than 80% of US doctors now say
00:27:08they're using AI in their work, including platforms like Open
00:27:12Evidence. But there are limits. The study evaluated the quality
00:27:16of the AI's reasoning or diagnosis in ER's it did not
00:27:20look at the safety or the outcome for patients. The
00:27:23authors stress it would make sense as a second opinion,
00:27:27but say there can be downsides as well.
00:27:29There was a study about AI supported colonoscopy and what
00:27:33I found was that the gastroenterologist that got
00:27:36used to using AI actually started performing worse when
00:27:39they stopped using the AI. So there can be a dependence and
00:27:43there can be a skill erosion over time. Doctors need
00:27:46experience to judge whether AI is offering sound advice,
00:27:49but no one disputes its potential. I think if we're
00:27:53looking at AI clear eyed and straight in the face,
00:27:56we should feel both scared and excited. Ask you to take a deep
00:27:59breath
00:28:01with guardrails. Doctors do hope it can safely be used as a
00:28:04tool to help care reach more people. Christine Burak,
00:28:08CBC News, Markham, ON.
00:28:12And that's all the time we have. For the latest on health and
00:28:15much more, head to cbcnews.ca.
00:30:24I'm Mark Kelly, and this is CBC News. Here's a
00:30:26look at some of the big stories making news across the country
00:30:29and around the world.
00:30:33WE HAVE BREAKING NEWS FOR YOU. YOU. STELCO SAYS IT IS GOING STELCO SAYS IT IS GOING AHEAD WITH HUNDREDS OF
00:30:37AHEAD WITH HUNDREDS OF LAYOFFS AT ITS HAMILTON LAYOFFS AT ITS HAMILTON STEEL PLANT.
00:30:40STEEL PLANT. THAT'S DESPITE THREATS OF THAT'S DESPITE THREATS OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FROM
00:30:43LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FROM FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. >> FAILING IT FOLLOW THEIR
00:30:46>> FAILING IT FOLLOW THEIR COMMITMENTS -- FAILING TO COMMITMENTS -- FAILING TO FOLLOW THEIR COMMITMENTS
00:30:50FOLLOW THEIR COMMITMENTS WILL RESULT BY ACTIONS BY WILL RESULT BY ACTIONS BY THE GOVERNMENT, AND SO
00:30:53THE GOVERNMENT, AND SO BASICALLY, MY POINT IS THEY BASICALLY, MY POINT IS THEY NEED TO COMPLY.