Addressing the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on Canada’s frontline workers

Dr. Alexandra Heber MD, FRCPC, CCPE, is Chief of Psychiatry for Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), and the Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at McMaster University, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Alexandra Heber has over 35 years’ experience as a nurse and as a psychiatrist. After a decade working with HIV+ clients at Mount Sinai Hospital, and leading an Assertive Community Treatment Team in downtown Toronto, she moved to Ottawa where she enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2006, and deployed to Afghanistan in 2009-10. In 2016, she became inaugural Chief of Psychiatry for Veterans Affairs Canada. In 2019, she worked with the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop the Federal Framework on PTSD. In March 2020, she led a Task Force for the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment, to create an online resource to support resilience among first-responders and public safety personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic; the COVID-19 Readiness Resource Project. https://www.cipsrt-icrtsp.ca/en/crrp

Dr. Heber has written two online courses on PTSD treatment, using a Trauma-Informed Care approach.  She has presented and published nationally and internationally on mental health in military, veteran, and first-responder populations. Her research interests include: mental health impacts of COVID-19, military sexual misconduct and trauma, and the effects of minority stress on women, LGBTQ2 Veterans, and other marginalized groups. Currently, Dr. Heber co-chairs the Canadian Military Sexual Trauma Community of Practice, and she is Lead Author on the Glossary of Terms 3.0. https://www.cipsrt-icrtsp.ca/assets/glossary-of-terms-version-21-1.pdf