Beauty as a Social Determinant of Health
Years ago at a health conference I heard a nun who worked in Winnipeg’s North End say, “Beauty should be a social determinant of health.”...
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Sue Robins
- Aug 15
- 3 min
Against Sickness Shaming
There are many euphemisms for being sick: under the weather, unwell, out of sorts. When I had cancer, many people whispered the word...
201
Sue Robins
- Aug 3
- 3 min
Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest: A commentary
I was immediately drawn to the cover of Dr. Sammy Winemaker and Dr. Hsien Seow’s new book Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest: 7 key to...
720
Sue Robins
- Jul 25
- 6 min
The Making of Big Love
This is a story about making a story. Telling the story behind the story might be meta, but art, like the video I created, does not just...
760
Sue Robins
- Jul 12
- 4 min
People With Disabilities Can Act
On Sunday July 9, 2023, I was sitting at a table in a ballroom with my youngest son Aaron and my husband Mike. We all had our Sunday best...
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Sue Robins
- Jun 20
- 2 min
The Man With the Wall Around His Heart
I presented as a patient with sudden onset of abdominal issues who was terrified that her breast cancer had returned. My family physician...
760
Sue Robins
- Nov 20, 2022
- 3 min
Give a Duck: A good convo over a cup of tea
This is the last in the series about my new Give a Duck Community. I see online spaces as a puzzle. No one site can give me everything I...
840
Sue Robins
- Nov 9, 2022
- 2 min
The Proximity of Mortality - A Visual Artist’s Journey Through Cancer
…sometimes simplicity is the most powerful spiritual stimulation. - Nicholas J Petrelli, M.D. On the surface, The Proximity of Mortality,...
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Sue Robins
- Oct 30, 2022
- 4 min
My Better Way: Give a Duck Community
The second in a series Last month I wrote about my growing discomfort with Twitter that ended with the assertion: There’s got to be a...
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Sue Robins
- Oct 19, 2022
- 4 min
A Health Care Rant: We are Heading Entirely in the Wrong Direction
Health care's raison d'être is to care for patients. If patients and caregivers aren't an organization's #1 stakeholder - the first...
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Sue Robins
- Sep 30, 2022
- 3 min
Safe Spaces for Health Care Advocates
This essay is the first of a series The other day I posted this picture of me wearing an N95 mask on Twitter. I have a big-ish following...
229
Sue Robins
- Aug 29, 2022
- 2 min
A Remarkable Life
(Lorraine) helped her staff address their challenges, and recognize their joys, in taking care of patients and their families...and the...
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Sue Robins
- Aug 7, 2022
- 4 min
There’s Got to Be a Better Way: Punking Health Care
There is a genre called solarpunk that is a creative way of describing a future state of the world where humanity has succeeded in...
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Sue Robins
- Jul 24, 2022
- 3 min
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
How can we relate to stories that threaten our own? Some of us go towards the threat. We search and question and dig. Some of us...
1140
Sue Robins
- Jul 11, 2022
- 2 min
Stay Soft Warriors
Recently I was asked how our family deals with the heavy weight of advocacy work. I rabble-rouse in health care for a living and my...
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Sue Robins
- Jun 26, 2022
- 3 min
All Teams Need a Deanna Troi
I took a professional communications certificate program a few years ago. The instructors had us take a personality test during the...
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Sue Robins
- May 5, 2022
- 3 min
a rainy afternoon during the pandemic
It is Cinco de Mayo, so I stopped at the Mexican grocer by the lake with all the ducks. A lady in the shop was wearing her mask under her...
560
Sue Robins
- Apr 18, 2022
- 4 min
How COVID is Like Cancer
I’ve been musing on the many parallels between the government’s response to COVID and my own cancer experience. I was diagnosed and...
2790
Sue Robins
- Mar 27, 2022
- 2 min
"Dying is a Big Health Problem"
My son Aaron created this video to be included in a subscription package for the Gathering of Kindness in Australia. (Interested in a...
651
Sue Robins
- Mar 21, 2022
- 1 min
my offerings
My professional has always been driven by my personal. I wear one hat and it is me. I'm fortunate to work in an area that I feel...
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