(Montreal) In view of an upcoming health crisis, Montreal Public Health wants to identify solutions aimed at mitigating the collateral impacts of measures to combat the threat that often hit vulnerable people the hardest.
The Regional Public Health Department (DRSP) of the Quebec metropolis presented on Tuesday a report on the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. She paints a portrait and gives a bouquet of recommendations for all future health emergencies, which go beyond pandemics.
“Our objective behind all this is to learn from these two years, to keep a collective memory. Our wish is really to see what we need to work on and what we need to improve within public health and with our partners for a more effective and equitable response,” explained the director of the DRSP, the DD Mylene Drouin.
The report summarizes the undesirable effects of health measures on the Montreal population, particularly with regard to mental health, domestic violence and the consumption of alcohol and cannabis.
Montreal having been more affected by population restrictions, its “mental health indicators, whether anxiety and depressive disorders, were always higher than what we find for the rest of the province”, noted the DD Drouin to journalists during a technical briefing.
But she noted that these indicators were improving when pandemic restrictions were relaxed.
One of the key recommendations of the DRSP is the establishment of a system to monitor the various impacts of health measures such as job loss, school absenteeism and food insecurity.
It is a question of finding the levers which will allow a better balance between the measures of control of the threat and the burden of its impacts on the vulnerable populations, affirmed the director of the DRSP.
The report also focuses on social inequalities. “We are not all equal in the face of health emergencies, whether it is heat or a flood (for example)”, underlined the DD Drouin.
It specifies that the capacity to adopt protective measures and to recover varies according to the level of vulnerability of the person.
“We know that crises exacerbate social inequalities. This is why it is so important in the way we plan and deploy our interventions to integrate this reading of social inequalities from the outset to guide our strategies,” mentioned the head of regional public health.
The DD Drouin gave the example of successful vaccination efforts aimed at reaching the most disadvantaged or homeless people.
Montreal Public Health also wants to tackle misinformation. It plans to adjust its communication strategies to rally the public to credible sources of information.
Asked about the idea of reimposing or strongly recommending the wearing of masks in indoor public spaces, the DD Drouin relied on Quebec, which must provide its guidelines on Wednesday.
However, she indicated that she would not advocate the compulsory wearing of masks in schools.
The DD Drouin nevertheless recalled that such a measure has “certain effectiveness” in reducing transmission and protecting hospital capacity. She invited the population to wear the mask in places with higher risks, i.e. closed places where there are many people close together over a long period.