#SCBIpodcast: COVID-19 in the context of global health and vulnerable populations with Dr. Praseedha Janakiram

On our latest episode of Small Changes, Big Impact podcast, we have Dr. Praseedha Janakiram. She is a family physician at Women's College Hospital, the program director for the Enhanced Skills Program for global health and vulnerable populations. She works at the Crossroads Refugee Clinic. She is the faculty lead for the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration and an assistant professor in the Department of Family Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Today, she talks about COVID-19 in the context of global health and vulnerable populations through all of her different roles.

Transcript:

Dr. Janakiram: (00:35)
Thank you, Jeremy. It's a pleasure to be with you today.

Dr. Rezmovitz: (00:38)
Thank you. So let's talk about what's going on. I don't know if you've heard recently, but there's a pandemic.

Dr. Janakiram: (00:47)
Indeed.

Dr. Rezmovitz: (00:48)
So how are you juggling these multiple roles? Holy smokes. That's a lot.

Dr. Janakiram: (00:55)
There's been a lot of juggling - that is for sure. I think we are - I think everyone I know, every colleague I have - we're all in the same boat together right now. And I think we're all thinking about how to serve our patients best, but also I think in our educational role, in my educational role, and certainly in liaising with my colleagues in Ethiopia, there's been an additional layer of support that we're trying to offer to both our students but also to our faculty and friends in Ethiopia.

Dr. Rezmovitz: (01:30)
So tell me more about that. How are you offering support and so - and if you can, is there any way you can comment on what the conditions are in Ethiopia versus Toronto?

Dr. Janakiram: (01:42)
Certainly. Maybe I'll start by thinking a little bit about just the juggling at home and juggling at Crossroads and then we can sort of shift through to the other sort of layers, if that sounds reasonable.

Dr. Rezmovitz: (01:55)
Sure.

Dr. Janakiram: (01:56)
So needless to say, at the Crossroads Clinic, we've shifted from basically seeing every patient in person to a virtual model, which I think in particular for the refugee population is an important consideration because this is a group that maybe orienting to the concept of primary care in the first place in the Canadian system and also to the concept of visits that are pre-booked and pre-planned. And now we've shifted them to a virtual model of telephone visits and some video visits as needed. I will say that the majority of our patients have been incredibly receptive to this and I think we are innovating in terms of trying to keep patients safe but also to maybe create this new platform as a way of reaching our patients in their homes and being more accessible to them, to a group that has many challenges to accessing us within our own four walls. A group who has transportation barriers and logistics barriers around caring for their families, attending English to second language courses, et cetera. Many are isolated right now and I think being able to speak to patients by phone has made a world of difference to keeping them healthy and safe and addressing their fears and concerns. So that's been a juggling act for sure, the last few weeks. In addition to that, we're all juggling at home right now, I think with our families. I have a little four year old at home and it's been a challenge to be a full time JK teacher in my spare time and to think about how to give her some reassurance and some security at a time when she's felt fairly isolated from all of her normal supports in terms of school and friends. And I know a lot of other parents are in the same boat right now.

Dr. Rezmovitz: (04:02)
So what are some of the comments that your daughter is stating as part of the isolation? Is there anything that comes to mind that struck you as poignant?

Read the full transcript on our website here.