(Press-News.org) Homelessness is increasing in pregnant and parenting people in Canada, posing health risks to children. Authors of a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241623 argue it is a health crisis that needs urgent attention.
“Housing is a basic life necessity for everyone,” write Drs. Nicole Racine and Stéphanie Manoni-Millar, University of Ottawa, and CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario. “With rising numbers of pregnant and parenting people experiencing homelessness in Canada, more children are being put at risk of negative health outcomes. Adequate housing that interfaces with supportive health and mental health services is a fundamental first step to counter the effects of poverty, family fragmentation, and displacement for this vulnerable group.”
Recent data show that the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 20% from 2018 to 2022, with 10% indicating they are part of a family.
“The health and developmental implications of homelessness for infants and young children are profound,” the authors write. It has been found that infants born to people experiencing homelessness have lower birth weights, higher risk of needing neonatal intensive care, and increased likelihood of infections and negative mental health and cognitive development.
They urge federal and provincial funding to provide access to safe and affordable housing with integrated services to support families, with support from municipal governments, social services and other providers.
“Reducing service fragmentation by enhancing collaboration and communication between housing services, mental health and addiction services, and health services optimizes the continuity of service delivery. However, few services or programs currently have the capacity or funding to provide longer-term services to clients.”
END
Homelessness in pregnant and parenting people is increasing
2025-06-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study: Loneliness doesn’t raise mortality risk
2025-06-16
Various reports have linked loneliness to premature death, with some — including the U.S. Surgeon General — suggesting that loneliness is as harmful to one’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
However, a new international study led by researchers at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health Sciences has found that while loneliness is common among older adults receiving home care, it is not associated with an increased risk of death.
The researchers analyzed data from more than ...
Women who work nightshifts are more likely to have asthma
2025-06-16
Women who work night shifts are more likely to suffer with moderate or severe asthma compared to women who work in the daytime, according to a study published today (Monday) in ERJ Open Research [1].
The research, which included more than 270,000 people, found no such link between asthma and working nightshifts in men.
The study was by Dr Robert Maidstone from the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues. He said: “Asthma disproportionately affects women. Women generally have more severe asthma, and higher rate of hospitalisation and death from asthma compared to men.
“In ...
Video consultations are faster, cheaper and more sustainable for patients
2025-06-15
A video consultation between patient and surgeon is just as good as a physical visit to the outpatient clinic to discuss a major operation. This is evident from research by Amsterdam UMC, demonstrated that a video consultation is just as good as a physical consultation in terms of information uptake. Alongside this finding, patients save an average of two hours of travel time and waiting time per consultation, incur no costs for travel and parking, and reduce their ecological footprint. The CO₂ emissions of a video consultation are 99 percent lower than those of a physical hospital visit. The results were published today in The ...
Neuroscience drives new wellbeing app
2025-06-15
Neuroscience Drives New Wellbeing App: ReNeuWell Launched by NeuRA and UNSW Sydney
Researchers from NeuRA and UNSW Sydney have launched a new app aimed at boosting the wellbeing and resilience of adults. This innovative mobile application, called ReNeuWell, shifts the focus from managing distress to actively promoting mental flourishing, offering a neuroscience-backed, personalized approach to mental health.
Designed by Associate Professor Justine Gatt, Director of the Centre for Wellbeing, Resilience and Recovery at NeuRA and UNSW’s School of Psychology, ReNeuWell is underpinned by the COMPAS-W ...
MOVEO project kicks off in Málaga to shape the future of smarter, smoother mobility across Europe
2025-06-15
Málaga, Spain – May 29, 2025 – The MOVEO project has officially launched! On May 27–28, 2025, 16 partners from nine European countries gathered at the headquarters of project coordinator CEMOSA in Málaga to initiate a bold new step toward transforming how people and goods move through Europe’s transport networks.
With growing urban populations and a surge in shipping demands, today’s transport infrastructure faces unprecedented pressure. The MOVEO project—funded under the Horizon Europe programme—aims to tackle these challenges by creating smart, integrated solutions for logistics and passenger flows, moving Europe closer to truly ...
Are the rest of podcasters history? AI-generated podcasts open new doors to make science accessible
2025-06-14
Sophia Antipolis, France, 14 June: The first study to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate podcasts about research published in scientific papers has shown the results were so good that half of the papers’ authors thought the podcasters were human.
In research published today (Saturday) in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing (EJCN) [1], researchers led by Professor Philip Moons from the University of Leuven, Belgium, used Google NotebookLM, a personalised AI research assistant created by Google Labs, to make podcasts explaining research published recently in the EJCN.
Prof. Moons, who also presented ...
Two frontiers: Illinois experts combine forces to develop novel nanopore sensing platform
2025-06-13
A pioneering partnership between researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has produced a novel nanopore sensing platform for single-biomolecule detection. Their findings, published in PNAS, pave the way for solid-state, label-free DNA sequencing technologies with implications for precision medicine.
Nanopore sensors are tiny devices used to detect and analyze individual molecules by measuring ionic changes as the molecules pass through nanometer-scale openings. These sensors are classified into two types: one relying on biological materials, and the other on inorganic solid-state ...
Biotechnology governance entreaties released, echoing legacy of 1975 recombinant DNA guidelines
2025-06-13
HOUSTON – (June 13, 2025) – Twenty-seven entreaties drafted and endorsed following discussions at the 50-year anniversary summit of the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA have been published and archived at Rice University’s Fondren Library to serve as a reference on biotechnology governance for scholars, policymakers and the public.
Entreaties can be viewed on the Rice Research Repository website at Fondren Library. Here is a link that presents the entreaty collection in numerical order. Here is a permanent URL for the entire collection.
Each accepted entreaty ...
Review of active distribution network reconfiguration: Past progress and future directions
2025-06-13
As power grids become more complex with the rise of renewable energy and local energy sources like rooftop solar panels, managing electricity efficiently is more challenging than ever. In a study published in Access, a group of researchers from the Brazil, Syria, Iran and U.K., focuses on how to make electric power distribution systems more efficient by changing the way they are configured. In power systems, this process is called Distribution System Reconfiguration. It's used to reduce power losses and improve how electricity ...
Revealing the lives of planet-forming disks
2025-06-13
An international team of astronomers including researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has unveiled groundbreaking findings about the disks of gas and dust surrounding nearby young stars, using the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA.
The findings, published in 12 papers in a focus issue of the Astrophysical Journal, are part of an ALMA large program called the ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks, or AGE-PRO. AGE-PRO observed 30 planet-forming disks around sunlike stars to measure gas disk mass at different ages. The study revealed ...