Public Health Behind The Headlines: An Interview with Dr. Yves Léger (Bilingual Episode)

You probably don’t think about public health until something goes wrong and that’s exactly the problem. We sit down with a New Brunswick public health physician and leader to talk about the work that protects you quietly every day: tracking infectious diseases, stopping chains of transmission, supporting schools and long-term care with infection prevention policies, and coordinating responses that can shift from local to province-wide in hours.

We also go straight at the hard part people rarely see: decision-making under uncertainty. During COVID, the data changed fast, staffing was stretched thin, and the public wanted simple answers while the science stayed nuanced. We talk risk, modeling, prevention (including why it’s so hard to “prove” what you prevented), and what it takes to communicate evidence-based recommendations in a world shaped by misinformation and social media.

Then we zoom out to the chronic disease epidemic and the determinants of health. We connect lifestyle medicine to the bigger levers that shape behavior: environment, access, policy, and community supports. We also look ahead to the next five years, including climate change and health, injury prevention, and the digital environment affecting youth mental health. If you’ve ever wondered why “health isn’t the same as healthcare,” this conversation will give you language, examples, and a clearer way to demand prevention-focused action. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re taking away.

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Dr. Jules 

Transcript

Welcome And Season Three Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Yo Blackbees buddies. Welcome back to season three of the podcast. This year's gonna be amazing. We'll be talking about all of the different pillars of lifestyle medicine, from nutrition to exercise to stress to sleep and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Alright, so uh an episode full shak where we've already done a half shak.

unknown 0:25

Dr.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yves Legendre, merciful to do uh a couple of time to hang out with me, see my podcast that will be here by many. Obviously, we're gonna talk about sort of public hygiénist in chef. I'm also talking about what you are doing, your parkour. Because I think a lot of people have the term medicine hygiénist or santy public. But I'm sure that the world includes more day in and day out

Meet A Public Health Physician

SPEAKER_01 1:00

what it seems like the view for toi. So you mind of how you're dealing with medicine, pis comment up dans le rôle que tu es dessus.

SPEAKER_06 1:11

Oui, ça me ferait vraiment plaisir, Julie. Merci de vous m'inviter. Je pense pas qu'on avait discuté d'une coupe d'ure aujourd'hui, for example.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Je vous ai donné une, Tibet.

SPEAKER_06 1:21

Oui, sure. On va prendre le temps que ça prend, mais non, ça me fait plaisir d'être site, puis parler un peu plus de la santé publique et de mon rôle aussi, parce que, comme tu dis, c'est je pense que c'est pas un rôle qui est bien connu necessairement. On voit certaines choses immédiatement, mais c'est vraiment juste des petits monceaux de ce qui est vraiment la réalité de notre travail, pis qu'est-ce qu'on fait. Ça fait. Non, ça me fait vraiment plaisir to parler de ça. Moi, je suis comme toi, je suis un gars de la région. J'ai grandi à Grandigue. J'ai born and raised in New Brunswick. Mes parents restent encore dans la même maison que j'ai grandi. J'étais à JR. Yeah, j'ai étudié à JR, puis là. Mon parcours, mon intérêt en medicine a commencé quand même assez jeune, je te dirais. Je me rappelle que j'étais en grade 9 cours de bio. Je pensais vraiment là que mon intérêt had commenced avec la medicine. J'ai continué avec ça, puis my parcours applicated in medicine. J'ai commencé à Sherbrooke. Sans là, I've had the program of medicine. It was possible that.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Back in your day.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Back in my day.

SPEAKER_06 2:44

Okay, so I've got your DSS at University of Moncton, Sherwick. My parcours in santé public had been straightforward. I've had an interest in the speciality chirurgical. But c'était pas vraiment que je cherchais à avoir. J'ai finalement commencé where I'm finished in medicine of family. J'ai commencé my residence ici at Moncton. T'as fait ta résidence à Moncton, je savais pas. J'ai commencé là. J'ai comme réalisé vite assez que je pense pas que c'était vraiment la carrière pour moi. J'aimais les patients, mais il y a quelque chose qui me manquait. Puis c'est vraiment là que j'ai pris un recul. J'ai dit, okay, prends un repos, vraiment regarde à toutes tes options, puis reconsidereux ton aller, c'est le temps de le faire. Puis comme tu sais probablement, santé public n'a pas beaucoup d'exposition en medicine.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Ça allait être mon prochain point parce que moi, j'ai fait un stage of sept semaines à longueur en santé public. Puis avant pis après, j'ai jamais entendu parler de santé public in my formation. So I pensay peut-être que t'avais eu cette ah moment-là de ton cours de medicine. Puis pas en résidence, pas mort de ça.

SPEAKER_06 4:07

Oui, exactement. Fait nous autres, dans notre temps, t'avais un stage d'un mois, t'avais une semaine de cours d'épidémiology, a couple de concepts de santé, puis après ça, t'avais un projet de recherche. Fait aucune exposition to the vrai santé public puis the travail qu'on fait au jour.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

It's telling vast que j'imagine that in a mour to la surface de co-santé public says.

SPEAKER_06 4:55

I'll probably have to find a stage. I'm six semaines in Alifax. I've passed this time later in santé public with a specialist to compromise what I feel like. It's really less that I piqued my curiosity. It's like I've said, Okay, I'm gonna give this a try.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

It's a little leap of face parce que it was six semaines, but it's a bit representative of ta quotidien that you've been already, I'm just sure.

SPEAKER_06 5:21

Ouais, hey, exactly. But I've took a leap of face, I'm decided to find a transition. I'm renting a program. Toronto, okay. Tu fais une maîtrise en santé public, pis là, tu fais une variety of stages in different sectors of the santé public. C'est comme ça que je me rends aujourd'hui.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Quoi ça se trouve? Une residence en santé public. You travail at different volets. On fait le mois de anti-tabagé, puis le mois de anti-épidémie pandemie, epidemie, je ne sais pas.

SPEAKER_06 6:01

Oui, ben c'est un peu de ça et tout. T'as vraiment une variété of différentes choses que tu vas faire. C'est un programme de cinq ans, habituellement, donc c'est une spécialité pour moi comme n'importe quelle autre. Puis il y a une composante clinique, ça fait qu'il y a beaucoup de gens qui vont faire de deux ans de médecine de famille, pis qui vont soit par

Leaving Family Medicine For Public Health

SPEAKER_06 6:20

intérêt, ils veulent continuer une pratique clinique en quelque sorte. En même temps qu'ils font leur santé public. Oui. Habituellement, les gens. Mon experience, les gens ne maintiennent pas les deux parce que ça devient difficile to garder their competences in a domain clinique varié. Des fois, ils vont se spécialiser in certain sectors cliniques, comme la santé sexuelle, des choses comme ça. En tout cas, il y en a qu'on s'intérêt-là. Donc, il y a un volet de médecine clinique qu'il faut faire. Après ça, là, il faut une maîtrise en santé public or a maîtrise en sciences. Donc, un volet academic that you're que tu couvres. Puis là, le rest du temps, c'est vraiment des stages. Ça fait là, tu as des stages different sectors of the santé public, control des maladies transmissibles, santé environnementale, health policy, gestion, different qu'on couvre in the rest of the people. Ouais, puis c'est vraiment un des parallèles that I free with the medicine of families. C'est que notre travail is extremely varied. Once we touch at two sorts of choses, it sounds maladies contagious, the epidemic that the monkey connects very well.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Wow. Come on, my medicine of family is large. I watch the patient to show you me passion. It's quite kind of tonight at the end of this volume that you touch. You know, one or two other.

SPEAKER_06 8:25

There's telling these departments that it doesn't have to just be their santy environmental, who will just be maladies contagious.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

There's an expertise clinic that's if you travel in Nouveau Brunswick, it's a bit like Jack of All Trades.

SPEAKER_06 9:34

C'est là qu'on fait affaire avec d'autres specialistes ailleurs aussi. Donc, on a vraiment un réseau solidaire Canadien de gens qui se connaissent et qui s'entraident aussi.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

My prochain question était besoin , comme si tu es expert in collaboration, right? Parce que j'imagine que if the Nouveau Brunswick could pass a situation that has been by another province or another pay, of the experience and expertise ailleurs. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 10:31

It's regularly épuiser so d'autres pour du sport.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Moi je connais Yes que toi. Je sais pas, I mean the equipe of marketing of santé public at the club of medicine, c'est pas de quoi on est pas parler de santé public. It's not necessarily trendy and popular to find what's gonna disconnect the besoin of the community. Clairement.

SPEAKER_06 11:28

C'est sûr que on a eu des gros eclosions, des epidemies comme SARS in 2003, on a vu certainement an intérêt qui a augmenté dans la speciality. Beaucoup plus de residents ou d'étudiants qui s'intéressaient à la speciality. Pandemia, même chose. Fait, ça va et ça vient un peu au niveau de l'intérêt. But ça a toujours été une petite speciality. On est. À un moment donné, on était comme 400, je pense, à travers le Canada. Je suis pas sûr que ces chiffres-là sont encore necessariamente. But speciality. It's sûr que. Come on d'autres sectors, l'offre and the demand varied to another. I mean, when I graduated, I've amply opportunities to travel. Born and raised, I've been living with my family. But if I would have been changed, I'm in a situation where you have a little bit of penny, it's a little bit difficult to recruit.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

They're complex, the great co reunit. And it's advantageous to training. I imagine that you're exposed to a lot of choses in a little bit more time than you have on Nouveau Brunswick, for example.

SPEAKER_06 13:19

There are many sectors who are displaying and low to support.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Have you traveled from medicine in santé

Training And Scope Of Public Health

SPEAKER_01 13:40

public at Toronto? It's like a merge.

SPEAKER_06 13:57

I've been my time at Toronto. It's the best place.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

The hustle and bustle of the gross village, it's fun to be exposed to that. T'en apprends about to be able to say your style of view, but the big name, or the shows are slow, hey. Nice, it's nice, yeah. Take me back-that's déménaging de santé publique semblant ce temps-là, in contraste avec ça.

SPEAKER_06 14:32

Oui. Moi, j'ai retourné à la province in 2007. Ça fait quasiment 20 ans que. L'année que j'ai commencé à pratiquer la médecine, oui. Yeah, ça fait quasiment 20 ans dans le domaine. Puis j'ai vraiment fait pas mal tous les postes en santé publique au niveau provincial. Comme j'ai. La majorité de mon temps a été dans la région. J'ai commencé à Bathurst. J'ai fait un petit peu plus de trois ans à couvrir le nord de la province. Puis là, après ça, je suis déménagé à Moncton. Puis là, j'ai été là jusqu'en début 2022 pour couvrir la région de Moncton, qui est une région très occupée. Il y a comme quatre différentes régions, puis on a le poste de médecin géniste régional qui occupe chacune de ces régions-là. Puis là, le quotidien est vraiment de travailler avec les partenaires communautaires, puis les équipes de santé publique pour vraiment supporter la livraison des programmes des services de santé publique. Ça fait là que tu es vraiment dans la page dans tout, que ce soit les maladies contagieuses, gérer les cas, les contacts, les éclosions, supporter les programmes d'immunisation, travailler avec les inspecteurs parce qu'on a des problèmes de qualité de l'eau, l'inspection de restaurants. You name it. C'est vraiment un travail qui est beaucoup plus au quotidien, appliqué vraiment dans la gestion des programmes de santé public. Puis là, on va 22, c'est là que j'ai transitionné de la province. Ça fait notre poste de médecin-hygiéniste en chef adjoint et devenu vacant. Falant m'a demandé de rentrer dans ce poste-là par intérim pour couvrir. Puis là, là, éventuellement, je suis devenu par intérim dans le poste de médecin-yéniste en chef. Puis là, ça fait quasiment un an que je suis plein de temps dans ce poste-là.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Super! T'as parlé tantôt de SARS? Moi, j'étais en médecine à Sherbrooke quand ça a arrivé, je me rappelle très bien. Bonne PR campaign pour le monde qui veut aller en santé public. Evidemment, ça ne nous a pas COVID. Comment ça va bien? On n'attend pas parler de la santé public. Comment ça va mal? C'est tout ce qu'on attend. On a parlé à Dr. Russell hier. Parle-moi de ton experience. Comment t'as vu cette pandémie

Pandemic Reality And Trust Problems

SPEAKER_01 16:50

COVID-là? Moi, ce que j'ai trouvé triste, puis j'aimerais t'en parler un petit peu. C'était que les gens voyaient comme les recommandations sur la santé publique. Genre comme une manière de contrôler la population. Puis il y avait genre beaucoup de desinformations aurant les recommandations par rapport à la vaccination, puis par rapport au apporter les masques, puis à l'isolement, puis toutes des recommandations qui sont basées dans des données probantes et le but to protéger the population. Quand je pense que les gens ne voyaient pas zoomed out, so take me back où toi avec la pandémie COVID, où est-ce que t'étais? Qu'est-ce que tu faisais? Qu'est-ce que tu as quotidien? Damage control, peut-être, je ne sais pas. Qu'est-ce que ça ressemblait ce temps-là, parce que j'imagine que c'était une period stressant for the medicine santé public to manage it? Your data arrives, it changes. The population perceived that they saved what they want. The science evolution. It's what the science is.

SPEAKER_06 18:25

C'est sûr que pour nous autres, on vivait avec les défis de toutes les limitations et les restreintes, puis tout le chambardement qui se passait dans notre société avec une pandémie. Mais en plus de ça, c'était tout le chaos of the probably short staff aussi dans le temps.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

C'est pas une speciality necessarily flooded applications chaque année.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

No. Puis vous veut pas the quantity of énorme fair. On est staffed for dealing with or liver the programs that we have on quotient. On peut gérer des situations d'urgence qui vont durer a couple de semaines, a couple de mois, but for a situation like a pandemic, it affects to a society pendant it's énorme parce qu'on est pas ressources to deal with that. Those sectors are affected. Too much affected. Ça a été un time that it was very difficult. Effectively, for the population that deal with changes continues. We can adapted to the new approach and the fact that we have to fit it's an adaptation continual. But we had a little bit. Tandis que for the public, they're difficult to compete. It's a new thing, it's a new malady. We're enjoying apprentices, and a few years, we have our approach. I'm just a good way to say to minimum impact. Looking back, it's to evaluate the effect of our actions. Okay. It's it's hard to measure when you prevent things. Because you prevent these things-just arrived. It's not facilitating to measure that. For a projection, what you know what it's aurait, and je pense que ça, c'est une des choses que les gens voyaient les aspects de règlements et les mesures qu'on avait en place, but des fois les gens précipitaient pas tout le temps non plus qu'est-ce que ça aurait été si on n'aurait pas fait ça. Comment pire que ça aurait pu être, pis comment notre system of santé aurait peut-être pu s'effondrer parce qu'ils n'auraient pas pu soutenir.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

On l'a vu in those people, but I'm sure we live as it's tough parce que confusion in link, but you're a bit of consensus in the community scientific. Right? So when you have online, I'll just put an example of a kind of interest in nutrition. Let me say the sodium augmented tension at the Lord you don't have a package delectrolytes in your eyes that contain 4 grams of sodium. Down what they won't care is the man who the message is communicated. Influencer super arrogant, confidence of you. He says he can. He said these probabilities, nuances. You're not really sure. It's like I think nothing who has a background scientific appreciate that. It's just gestion statistics, probability. Probability of what probability that if we have that, you're a little bit of incertitude, right? I imagine that you're developing a genre expert on risk management or statistic, on gestion of data. Because at the fact the manner formulates the recommendations, is interpreting the donations that we are doing. At the base, you would have to just get a chart, get a projection, have your modeling, like I've mentioned it, and put a decision that you souhaite, saw that you can do the future, you can predict the mutations, you can predict their reactions. Lorde to communicate it to public. Because this is another whole different monster to be capable of simplify a concept scientific complex sans level jargon scientific.

SPEAKER_06 23:32

C'est ça qui est vraiment le défi. Prends des concepts nuancés, compliqués, mais assez vraiment de rendre accessible, comprehensible au public qui ont plus de misère avec ces nuances-là.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Oui ou non. C'est ça ta recommandation finale based on a des données qui ne disent pas oui ou non.

SPEAKER_06 23:57

Oui, c'est ça, c'est ça. C'est vraiment aspect qui était beaucoup plus compliqué durant la pandémie. Je crois que c'est au niveau of the lessons learned, au niveau communication, c'est une des choses que je parle across the board. On parle pas justement, on parle à travers le Canada a yeah. Coming to the communication with the public, explicitly, comprendre what certain choses are faits and pas d'autres.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Sorry, public in general, right? To be sure that the message is communicated with this nuance-là, but en même temps, they have to say the mass ou je la mets pas la masse. Super interestant, super fascinant for me. Obviously, say on fast forward on 2026, the pandemic is out. The problem right now is the maladies infectious. En too, I'm not in the table that evolution. But for us, the great problem of Nouveau Run deck is probably the epidemic of maladies chronic, right? So in the minute, we're transitioning with the part of our podcast. But first, I'm going to just talk about what the role of the santy public when it is at the gestion of maladies chronic. Because we say that probably three of these maladies chronic are in some way kind of connected to the way we have our lives. We say all the time it's a problem of willpower, it's a problem of discipline that the people say exercises, the environment does a role. Absolutely. What is the role of the santy public in this volume?

SPEAKER_06 25:35

I'm very fierce that you am this sujet, because we'll have maladies contagious, but for me, entire sujets and fashion, it's absolutely maladies chronique. It's not just a problem qui est propre au Nouveau-Brunswick. Don't be important. We know we can't treat our way out of this problem. Don't sensibilisation, I thought it commenced par ça. Moi, je suis pas quelqu'un qui croit que l'éducation is the annoyable. Je pense pas que juste à éduquer du monde, ça va necessairement Ça va avoir un impact chez certains, mais pas chez la majorité. Mais je crois que c'est quand même la base de tout ce qu'on fait au-delà de ça.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

C'est sûr que les gens ne basent pas leur decision sur des mauvaises données ou de la misinformation.

SPEAKER_06 27:09

Oui, oui. Je crois que ça, c'est quelque chose d'important. On a commencé à travailler sur un rapport de surveillance de la santé de la population. Mais moi, je pense que c'est vraiment une composante important dans ce travail. Comment souvent le faire. Mais vraiment, essayer de dresser un portrait de la santé de la population, mais pas justement de la santé, mais les determinants de la santé. Pour vraiment que the population, the government, the organisms comprenne un peu the sevérity of the problem, and we can see our progression with the time. The collaboration is crucial in this travail. Once souvent the Ministry of the Santé and the domain of the Santé, but the santé as well with the leviers that affect the determinants of the santy. I think this is the important.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

I present that the micro meso-macro, and the micro is an individual. It's moi. Mm-hmm. Make the people how many more, exercise, dormant more, but have access to the information. Come on to another volume. Right? So I think I'm dedicated my view to this niveau micro-individual. Faut-être toucher le niveau community. My community is the community medical. I said transfere this passion to those medicines. I mean I'm impacted until I impact a medicine. Lui a peut-être aimé le patient. Ensuite, l'impact grossi a niveau méso. Puis ensuite, on regarde tout ça, and I think to l'impact that I can have a niveau micro and mosaic is still eclipsed by the determinants of the santy that we're likely an impact on the santy of the gens. We have the mission, but we accept that we have to tackle two niveau to be capable of difference.

SPEAKER_06 31:22

It's complementary, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:29

So if you're okay

Chronic Disease And Health Determinants

SPEAKER_01 31:30

with that, I'll transition to the English part of the podcast. We've talked about your journey, we've talked about the role of public health and how public health often people get to know them during crises. I'd like to talk about the things that the public doesn't see every day, but the work you're doing behind closed doors. Because we talked about pandemic and chronic diseases. But what are the other things that are the other facets or kind of things that fly under the radar that that kind of you're impacting by the work you do? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 32:04

Yeah, there's certainly a lot of things that, like you said, some of the more obvious ones around communicable disease control. You see when we have outbreaks, oftentimes that's very visible. But we also deal in other communicable diseases that the public doesn't necessarily see. So we have a list of about 60 some odd diseases that are abordable to public health under the Act. And so for a lot of those, for example, the healthcare system and the clinician takes care of the patient who is sick. We look at how that patient got infected, what was the source of the infection, who are the contacts that may have been infected to try to prevent or stop the chain of transmission. So we work behind the scenes to help control infectious disease, work with different partners in the communities, such as schools, long-term care facilities, to help them develop policies around infection prevention and control. So we do some of that that's not as visible typically. We do a lot of work in environmental health that may not be necessarily visible as well. So every time if if you're on a municipal drinking water supply and you open up your tap in the morning to fill your glass of water and you take a drink, you probably don't think about all the effort and work that goes behind getting that water to your house and making sure that it's clean and safe.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 33:18

We work very closely with the Department of Environment to regulate drinking water in New Brunswick. So we have various committees that are in place that make sure that the water is that there are regulations in place, that the water is tested, that if there are any issues or problems, we respond to those. We also work uh with our health inspectors to make sure that the foods that you eat are safe. So anybody that sells food to the public typically is licensed through public health. Okay. And we have inspectors who go out and do inspections, make sure that the practices are sanitary, that if there are any issues, that we take take measures to protect protect the safety of the food. We also do a lot of work investigating health hazards. So if there are major events, I'll take the example of like the AIM fire in St. John.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 34:05

Big industrial fire in the city. So we undertook a significant investigation to make sure that uh there weren't any impacts from all the emissions that happened from the fire, because there was a lot of pretty nasty stuff that was burning in the middle of the city.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

So people who are growing home gardens, making sure that those aren't affected by a lot of the So are you taking like air quality samples and soil samples and testing them and talking to residents and Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:34

So there are air quality monitors around the city. So we were tracking the air quality and determining if we needed to provide messaging to the public or even consider evacuations of certain sectors. And then post-event, looking at the different products that have burned and what we expect would be the emissions from that and where those emissions may have gone, determining, okay, do we need to sample soils in certain gardens to see if those those are impacted by the event to make sure that, you know, if if we need to provide with them with any messaging or advice around using any products that are grown in in soils and things like that. So those are another example of some of the things that we do as well. We do a lot of stuff around climate change. Another, I think, very important health issue of our time. Maybe one of the biggest ones, really. So we do a lot of work to try and prepare and mitigate some of the effects of climate change. We operate our heat adapt, heat alert, and response system. So looking at when we're expecting significant heat waves, making sure that we're communicating advice to the public, working with our community partners to improve their response so that we can protect some of the more vulnerable groups in the communities around heat-related events, responding to wildfires, which we had quite a number of them last year. So working with our emergency response sectors as well to make sure that municipalities are prepared and that we're providing advice and guidance on how to respond to things like that.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

So I'm I'm picturing a day in your life where you're getting bombarded with data coming from all of these different uh kind of domains. Yeah. And at some point, someone needs to make the call. This is not just noise, it's a glitch. And we need to advise the public, right? And then I'm assuming that mobilizes the whole protocols that you already have like in play. Who makes that decision? Is it a round table of of or is it you? Are you single-handedly making that now you're kind of in your role? Or how how does that decision-making process take place?

SPEAKER_06 36:43

Aaron Powell It depends. I mean, it's in some cases when issues are more local in nature. Typically that's my colleague, the regional officer of health, that takes care of that region. So so they'll typically take the lead, work with their partners, make decisions around how they respond to things. We're there to support, so sometimes they need help. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

And you get information from the regional officers to make sure that you're in up to date with everything that's going on in the province.

SPEAKER_06 37:08

Yep, and we'll we'll help them respond and support them if they need to. When that jumps between regions or if there are multiple regions that are involved, then typically then it becomes more of a provincial response. And so we get involved and work with the different partners and departments across government as well to respond to things that tend to span across different regions.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

I really enjoy hearing to at what extent your role is one of collaboration. Right? You're it seems like you're not just collaborating between other public health doctors, but I mean a lot of different professions involved in making sure that the population stays healthy, right?

SPEAKER_06 37:49

Yeah. Absolutely. We because I mean we don't have that many resources. And a lot of things that we deal in, or do we deal with expertise lies outside of public health, right? So when we're very dealing with environmental issues, yes, we have a lot of familiar familiarity and knowledge around how that impacts health, but you know, expertise around air quality monitoring or water sampling, testing, like all those that that scientific expertise lies in other departments. So absolutely we we collaborate all the time with within government and outside of government as well, right? Very interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

What I've learned throughout conversations with people of influence and experts in all different types of domains, that there's always issue with finding funding and targeting like the the elephant in the room, the the big, big pillars that we need to pull or big levers we need to pull. So if you look at the next five years, where do you think that public health will focus most of its energy, knowing that you're already

The Invisible Work That Protects You

SPEAKER_01 38:50

managing like a ton of different things? But where do you think we need to focus our attention?

SPEAKER_06 38:56

Yeah, and that's always the balance, right? Like there's a lot of programs and services that we deliver. Some of them are considered core programs and services that we can't really change. That we don't want to change each other. Like removable disease control, immunization, you know, safe water, safe foods. Like those are core bread and butter things that we we obviously we don't want to touch and we don't want to move. But I think some of the topics that we've already touched on today, in my view, I think are the ones that I think we need to focus our efforts on more. Chronic disease prevention, injury prevention, like I think that's a really big one, and and being better prepared and responding to climate change, figuring out what our role is, because there's already a lot, there's already work happening in some of those areas. So it's not to say that work isn't happening. I just I think that we need to put more energy and more emphasis into that. Climate change, for example, is one where already governments, you know, has interdepartmental, you know, work going on to support that. But I think there are contributions that public health can make to that work that we need to we need to figure out and and and beef up so that we can better prepare for that, because I think, you know, that's probably gonna be one of the biggest health issues of our time. We're already seeing it. But I don't think people realize how much it's going to impact health at some of those different levels in terms of how our infectious diseases are going to change, how it's gonna impact our drinking water, our recreational water, how it's gonna impact a lot of these extreme events, droughts, wildfires, you know, our food supply with the agricultural sector and how that's gonna be affected. Like we're already starting to see a little bit of that, but but I think that's gonna be a big one that we need to really continue our efforts around. And the other one I think as well that I think warrants a lot more effort is this whole issue around social media and digital sorry, digital environment uh that we're in, but our youth are in.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

How does public health play a role in it? I've never I I actually am just having this aha moment right now. Problematic social media use is correlated with mental health disorders in a dose-dependent manner, right? So the more that the our kids are using them, the poorer are their mental health. And I've I've not really thought of up till now what role can public health play in trying to damage control that because phones are not going away. So it and and a lot of studies are showing it's not just how much you use them, it's the way you use them, right? That's right. Because these technologies can be super beneficial, but sometimes there's nuance in in how they're used. So what role does public help play in in kind of managing that and projecting where that's going? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:48

Yeah, it's kind of a new area, I would say, that we're, as as you've said, obviously we're we're growing more and more concerned about where things are going and what the evidence is starting to show. I mean, it's you know, there there is evidence there that suggests that there are potential harms, but there are certainly benefits.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

So I think to your point, we need to recognize that's why we're here today, because we'll get more visibility uh reaching a lot of people talking on on social media than I will reach people in the clinic, right?

SPEAKER_06 42:16

So yeah, absolutely. So we need to recognize the benefits, but also I think recognize the harms and try to maximize those benefits and try to reduce the harms as as much as we can. So I think it's still a new area where we haven't done a whole lot of work yet. There are some things happening in public health. Some regions are starting to work on pilot projects. We're working on a sort of national statement with the chief medical officer of health across the Canada, across the country, around this issue. So trying to raise awareness of some of the potential concerns and the need to pay attention to this because it's another type of environment, like you were saying, right? It's the digital environment, and there are a lot of things happening in that environment that are influencing people. Not a lot of safeguards. Not all safeguards. So it's really it. And a lot of we don't people don't realize the things that are happening behind the scenes, the complex algorithms that are influencing what you see, what you hear. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Siloing people into certain fields of thought. Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of things happening there. So really it's I think for us it's thinking about not necessarily putting the onus on the individual. Again, there's a role for education, but it's like how do we change the environments and those safeguards to reduce the harms that that are coming from that.

SPEAKER_05 43:36

So I think that is, I think, another important topic that I'd really like us to be able to explore further and see where we can we can contribute.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

I see my colleagues struggling. I see the healthcare system that's struggling. I've seen myself struggle. I've talked about this with my followers in 20 between 2012 and 2014, I kind of I hit a wall. I was working inhumane hours, not taking care of myself. I see it in my colleagues. I can appreciate the amount of huge decisions that you're making, probably on a daily basis. I can just I I can't I I can't even imagine the amount of data you're flooded with, and then you have to summarize all of that, and then like like you said, you get all this nuanced information and you need yes or no. We do this or we don't. We raise the flag or we don't. How do you prioritize wellness in your life? How do you stay resilient and stay grounded?

Climate Threats And How Decisions Happen

SPEAKER_01 44:40

And after you're left work, most of us take our work home with it's a Saturday today, so we're working.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Let's maybe not talk about balance.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

I mean, how do you try to maintain balance in your own life?

SPEAKER_07 44:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, work is is when you said you don't take your work home. I work from home, so work is always there. Work is always there, but I try to, yeah, I have a home office and I try to keep it, keep it there. Yeah. But yeah, I've I've always been a strong believer in work-life balance.

SPEAKER_06 45:15

I've I have struggled quite a bit these last few years with that. And I'm aware of that. We've, like I said before, we have we've got shortages in our team, which means that I may be meeting with our deputy minister and our minister one day to talk about an important health issue, and the next I'm dealing with or supporting the region in a hepatitis A situation going on.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

You can't just say I I I just I need to go. I have to go to Costco. Sorry, I can't show up today.

SPEAKER_07 45:45

Yeah. So there's a lot of there's a lot of that happening.

SPEAKER_06 45:49

But but for me, I think I when I eat well and I exercise, that really helps me manage my stress. So I always, whether it's, you know what, it's at 8 o'clock tonight that I'll be able to do my workout, well, that I'll do it at 8 o'clock tonight if I can't do it after work at 5:30 or 6. But I fit it in every day and whatever it is, whatever I can fit in, whether it's going for a walk because I need fresh air or I'm going to the gym or I'm doing whatever, going on a bike ride. For me, exercise is is really, really important. Uh it helps to kind of clear my mind and recharges me. That's really, really the best, best way for me to kind of keep that balance.

SPEAKER_07 46:32

And having a wife at home that that makes sure that I I keep that balance, so she'll challenge me.

SPEAKER_06 46:38

I tell her, you know, child that's fine. Challenge me. You know, make sure that I try try to keep as as good a balance as I can because I know that in the long run I think I'll be I'll be a better person and a better a better medical officer of health as well, if if my head's in the right place, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:56

We need a healthy planet to have healthy people, we need healthy doctors to make sure that we take care of our patients. I take care of individuals, you take care of populations. Any last thoughts or tips for the people that will be listening to your inspiring story? Where do you want to see public health go next? What do you want individuals to focus on?

SPEAKER_06 47:21

The one thing I would say that I would like to leave, I guess, as a message is health is not always or necessarily healthcare. And I think we we spend a lot of time talking about our healthcare system. And I think that's important. I I'm the comment is not to say that healthcare isn't important. When we're sick, you know, we may have a thousand problems, but when we're sick, we only have one, right? And we need our healthcare system to be there for us. And I think that's really, really important. I think unfortunately, I think that's often the discourse that we hear is is always about the healthcare system, and it's what politicians hear as well. And so it gets the attention, right? So I think leaving with the understanding that healthcare is important, but it's really a small percentage of

What Comes Next And Staying Grounded

SPEAKER_06 48:10

what makes us or makes a population healthy. And so focusing on other things and and asking of governments to focus on other things, to focus on prevention and not just on health. Yes, healthcare, MRIs, doctors are important. But what are you doing about these other factors that influence our health, right? Yeah. I think is really important. And so I think the more people recognize that, focus on that, demand action on that, I think governments will listen and will put more resources and support behind it because we're always kind of the poor cousin to the healthcare system, right? The preventative aspects don't get as many resources and support as as the healthcare system.

SPEAKER_05 48:52

But I think shifting that focus and saying we want we want governments to focus on that, put more energy and effort on that, I think uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

I think we're fighting the same fight where we're contrasting the difference between being healthy and being well, right? Health and wellness are two different things. And you can be healthy on paper and your blood markers can be good, but you can still be going through massive amounts of stress or food insecurity or so. I I really appreciate you saying that. It was a very, very amazing conversation. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us, and thanks for giving me an hour of your time.

SPEAKER_07 49:29

Happy, happy, happy to be here, and I really appreciate it. And uh I'll come back anytime.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Right on. Thank you. Hey everyone, go check out my website, clientbasedrjew.com, to find free downloadable resources. And remember that you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Dr.JulesCormier, and on YouTube at Clintbase Dr. Jewels.