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Q&A: How Do CanRise Members View the Medical System?

Day 3 · 7:07:03 · Shawn Buckley · Dean Allison · Julie Woods

  • 🏚️ Members feel completely abandoned five years on; most still lack diagnosis or treatment plans.
  • ☠️ The only “options” repeatedly offered are medical assistance in dying or suicide.
  • 📞 CanRise is often the last hope; callers say if no treatment appears in a month they will apply for MAiD or end their lives.

Counsel asks about the prevailing mood among vaccine-injured Canadians.

← Woods: Co-Founds CanRise19 for Emotional, Physical and Future Financial Aid | Q&A: Why Does the Profession Still Refuse to Help? →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 7:07:03

Um, I, I had, uh, a couple of more questions, and it's just that I know, um, you're a vibrant part of this community.

Dean Allison · 7:07:10

Yes.

Shawn Buckley · 7:07:11

Um, generally speaking, What, what, how are the members of CANRICE? Because I, or don't you guys, like, I should, members are the wrong term because I know there's a difference between, um, how many people participate in discussions. But like, what's the feeling out there towards the medical system and how they've been treated?

Julie Woods · 7:07:34

Honestly, it's that we've all been abandoned. We are 5 years into this. And like I said, I'm lucky to have a diagnosis and a treatment plan, but we hear time and time again from our members that they don't have a diagnosis, they don't have a treatment plan, and unfortunately what's being presented as a treatment plan and an option to them is medical assistance in dying or suicide.

Shawn Buckley · 7:08:10

And that was going to be my next question, because we had, I think it was Senator Johnson or somebody yesterday had mentioned that in discussions with React 19 that they're reporting that more and more of their members just can't take it anymore, and they don't have, you know, legalized suicide here. But so people are just taking their own lives.

Dean Allison · 7:08:35

Lives.

Shawn Buckley · 7:08:36

Um, I know that you have a personal concern that CANRICE 19 members, some of them just aren't going to be able to take it anymore and that they're going to kill themselves. Can you talk about that for a moment? Because this—.

Julie Woods · 7:08:47

Yeah, so through CANRICE 19, uh, we have an advocacy program, and so individuals can reach out, uh, for support and to be connected to resources, but we're finding that there's very limited, if any, resources in Canada. And so unfortunately, when people are reaching out to us and they're reaching out to organizations in Canada who are noting the same trends within Silent Survivors or CanConnect19, we're having people call us and We at CAMHRS 19 are their last hope. They're calling us saying, if I'm not better and I don't have a treatment option in a month, then I'm going to apply for MAiD or I'm going to complete suicide.

Shawn Buckley · 7:09:49

I don't think anyone in this room knows what to do with that.

Julie Woods · 7:09:54

No, and that's, that's where we're stuck because we can provide all the emotional support groups in the world, but if the medical community in Canada is not able to acknowledge us and is not able to treat us, we are going to continue to see this trend in Canada. And we are going to continue to lose the COVID-19 injured in Canada. And that is honestly the hardest part in all of this.

Dean Allison · 7:10:32

Response.