Dr. Sephora Tang to provide think tank with expertise and advice on mental healthcare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

17 January, 2024

OTTAWA, ON – Psychiatrist Dr. Sephora Tang has joined Cardus as a senior fellow in the health research program. Dr. Tang will provide critical expertise and guidance to Cardus on its approach to mental health issues, including research on social isolation, as well as on the implications of a possible expansion of euthanasia in Canada to those whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.

Dr. Tang works as an Outpatient Psychiatrist at the Ottawa Hospital.  She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, where she is the Program Director of the Psychiatry Residency Training Program after having served for three years as the Psychiatry Postgraduate Site Education Director at the Ottawa Hospital.

Dr. Tang’s clinical experiences as a hospital-based psychiatrist have led her to be an advocate for access to quality medical and mental healthcare for vulnerable and marginalized people. She has appeared as an expert witness before the Senate and Ontario legislature on medicine- and psychiatry-related issues. She currently serves as a Council Member of the Ontario Psychiatric Association and as a clinician investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in the Neuroscience Program.

Dr. Tang joins an already robust group of health-focused senior fellows at Cardus, including:

• Leonie Herx, palliative medicine specialist and clinical professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
• Peter Tanuseputro, a physician and Associate Palliative Care Professor at the University of Ottawa
• Eric Wasylenko, a clinical ethicist and recently retired palliative care physician from Alberta

“Dr. Tang is joining Cardus as a senior fellow at just the right time,” says Rebecca Vachon, Health Program Director at Cardus. “Her expertise in mental health and her advocacy for better access to mental healthcare make her an important voice in the ongoing Canadian debate over expanding euthanasia eligibility to those whose sole underlying condition is mental illness.”

Previous polling has revealed that Canadians are facing major difficulties in accessing mental health care. An alarming 43% of Canadians who sought help for their own mental health in 2023 had difficulty accessing in-patient programs for suicide-prevention, eating disorders, addictions, or other serious issues. A similar proportion had difficulty accessing general mental health therapy.

The same polling found that more than eight in 10 Canadians agree that euthanasia and assisted suicide eligibility “should not be expanded without improving access to mental health care first.”

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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-899-5174
media@cardus.ca

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