Mental Health During Pregnancy - Interview Short with Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe via WHCC

Huge thanks to Women’s Health Collective Canada and Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe for this chat regarding mental health issues among pregnant women and mothers here in Canada.

“Episode 2 of The FYI has landed and we can’t wait to share more from this thoughtful conversation between Dr. Dawn Kingston and Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe. Our brand new series, will host conversations between researchers and notable Canadian women to highlight key issues impacting women’s health all over the country.

In today’s clip Dr. Kingston and Dr. Wijayasinghe shed light on just how prevalent mental health issues are in both pregnant women and mothers here in Canada. The statistics here may surprise you.

Dr. Sheila Wijayasinghe, is a family doctor in Toronto, practicing at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is also the Medical Director of Primary Care Outreach at Women’s College Hospital, where she advocates for equitable and accessible healthcare for all individuals with a special focus on individuals with mental health and addiction conditions and from BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ communities. She has been the health expert on CTV’s The Social for 10 years and has contributed to the Globe and Mail and the Huffington Post.

Dr. Kingston is a Professor at the University of Calgary, the inaugural holder of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women Cross-Provincial Chair in Women’s Mental Health, and a New Investigator with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). In her role, she leads large interdisciplinary, pan-Canadian and global teams that focus on screening and treatment of women’s mental health disorders (with a focus on perinatal mental health) as well as understanding the impact of poor prenatal and postnatal maternal mental health on child physical and mental health and development. Her innovative trials are playing a key role in the transformation of perinatal mental healthcare in Alberta through HOPE, a digital mental health platform, enabling pregnant women and new mothers to have access to e-mental health screening, e-referral, and e-therapy as part of routine care (https://www.hopementalhealth4women.com/).”

— Women's Health Collective Canada