Although Dr. Hamidah Meghani has been Halton’s medical officer of health since 2014, few among us could have named her before last March.
But one year ago this week, she had the job of publicly announcing the region’s first case of COVID-19. A few days later, she had to share news of Halton’s first death.
Since then, like other public health officials across the country, she has faced the pressure of making decisions with life-and-death implications while under intense public scrutiny.
It has been a year with “many dark days,” says Meghani, a certified family physician with master’s degrees in public health and health leadership.
In honor of International Women’s Day, she reflected on some of the lessons she’s learned and challenges she has faced in an unimaginable year. Her answers have been edited for length.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned over the last 12 months?
"On a personal front, I think the biggest lesson is that I've had to learn to be much more resilient than ever before.
On a societal front, there’s a lot that we need to learn from this whole situation.
Unfortunately, the brunt of this pandemic has really been felt by those who were already more marginalized in our society.
I think my biggest lesson going forward is that we need to do a better job to really level the playing field and make sure that our societal structures and our policies actually lead to better health equity and not to widening the gap any further."
What has your life been like over the last year?
"I have a very strong and supportive husband and that's how I've gotten through this pandemic.
I never had a 9-5 job. Yes, I am working extremely crazy hours for a very long period of time. I've had to make significant decisions, on a daily basis it feels like, while dealing with constant criticism over the response to COVID-19.
I definitely see this as being a pivotal and very stressful period in my life. I often worry about how little time I have with my child and my family and what the long-term implications may be for those relationships.
But what I remember is that I don't have to worry about how I'm going to pay for food and shelter for my family. I don't have to struggle to figure out how to fill out complicated government forms for assistance. I can work safely in my own house. I have access to child-care, and I can access healthcare easily when I need to, so my pandemic experience is definitely different to someone working at a long term care home, for instance, or at a meatpacking plant.
While I see myself as fortunate, I also see this great need for change to occur in our society – for us to really look at things through a health equity lens and level the playing field.
I try to focus on that more than focus on the difficult circumstances right now."
The pandemic has revealed that many of Canada’s medical officers of health are women. Do you think this will act as an inspiration for young women to enter fields of public health?
"I hope the pandemic has highlighted the role women can play in leadership positions both in public health, and more broadly, in the public sector.
I hope that young women will go into leadership roles in health, but I hope more so that they aspire to go into leadership roles in other sectors as well.
I think women bring something special to the table in leadership positions. Certainly our life experiences teach us empathy, they teach us to care and they help us develop the emotional intelligence that is so important to being a good leader today."
What has been the biggest professional challenge you've faced this year?
"One professional challenge has been maintaining a sense of calm amidst growing criticism as public health measures had to be imposed in order to curb COVID-19 infection.
For me, I’ve had to really dig deep and remember that most people are good and kind and that the current situation has led to many people being frustrated and perhaps not on their best behaviour.
I think it's OK to express your opinion, but we need to do that respectfully. It's not OK to hide behind email accounts and social media accounts to say things that perhaps you wouldn't say in real life.
I urge people to continue being kind and patient and caring. We're hopefully only months away from this being history. Every day counts and all of our actions really matter."
What do you hope comes out of this pandemic, in terms of public health?
"I hope people will come to understand what public health really does and how important it is to people's lives that public health play the role we are playing.
We fly under the radar lot in terms of the good work that we do in society."
