March 31, 2023
Letter from the Editors
Volume XV of Health Perspectives features student researchers coming out in full force.
For over a decade, Health Perspectives has provided undergraduate students the opportunity to share their research in the public health field. It has also been a center for discovering inventive solutions to the ongoing systemic issues within healthcare, both on a national and global level. While the core values of Health Perspectives remain, we as an organization made changes this year, in light of the University of Toronto community’s needs following the COVID-19 pandemic. For one, our editorial team needed increased collaboration and communication between junior and senior editors to foster comprehensive discussions about the journal’s direction. Second, we chose to double the size of our team. In doing so, we expanded the range of knowledge and unique skills contributing to this year’s publication, allowing for an ethical, equitable, and complex lens. Finally, we significantly increased the number of papers included in this issue, to stay true to the journal’s mission of emphasizing the voices of our student researchers.
“These solutions might be exactly what Canadian patients need to restore health–and their hope–as we look toward the future in a post-lockdown world.”
What I especially take pride in is the fact that in spite of post-pandemic challenges, including those of social, academic, and emotional natures, our editorial team committed their time to the success of this project. I also applaud each and every one of our authors for giving back to their community at this time. With several structural issues being exposed in Canada’s healthcare system during the pandemic, inventive research and accompanying solutions are needed now more than ever. This issue highlights many of these inequities, including those rooted in structural violence, neocolonialism, and gender-based discrimination. Our authors go further, however, to take the opportunity to put forth solutions. Best practices such as telehealth, trauma-informed care, and incorporation of mental health services into our healthcare system are gaining traction. They might be exactly what Canadian patients need to restore health–and their hope–as we look toward the future in a post-lockdown world.
Yours in health,
Anastasia Hall, Editor-in-Chief
Omnia Adam, Senior Editor
Julianna Hill, Senior Editor
Helin Polat, Senior Editor
Health Perspectives 