Annette Mckinnon McKinnon and I live in Toronto. When I began to have symptoms that affected my life I went to see my GP doctor. He told me I was a normal healthy mom. It took me two years to get a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis working on my own. During that time my joints were heavily damaged. Since that occurred 40 years ago and information is much easier to find now I hope that my situation is now less common, though I still see stories of doctors not believing patients. Having a chronic disease is like having a part time job. The work involved in dealing with my health takes as...

“Safe Care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – Safe Care for Life”: An Equity Perspective Esha Ray Chaudhuri, PhD – PFPSC Member The 2026 WPSD theme “Safe Care for NCDs – Safe Care for Life!”, marks a milestone in the field of Patient Safety. It enhances the individual concepts of both patient and safety using equity as an overarching principle for guiding the field’s path forward. The equity focus sets a transformative point of view that patient safety should consider not only individual medical harm during treatment, but also relevant lifestyle and environmental risk factors,...

Donna Davis- 2026 Our firstborn child was born in 1977 with Spina Bifida, a neurological congenital defect in which the spine is not formed correctly. The spinal cord often protrudes through the incomplete spine and is contained in a sac of spinal fluid on the outside of the body. It results in hydrocephalus in the majority of cases and also varying degrees of paralysis. We live in the farthest southeast part of the province- 3+ hours from the closest acute care hospital that could provide care for our daughter. We were new young parents with limited financial means. The numerous trips to...

Paula Orecklin, WPSD 2026 Hi, I’m Paula, and my leg hurts. So, did you know, pain sucks? Yeah, I know. Total surprise. One of the reasons it’s so important that patients share our experience. We know stuff. The thing is, really, we do know a lot of things. We know what it’s like when your life suddenly narrows to such an extent that you’re not sure there’s even anything else left besides being a patient. Where just getting through the next day- the next hour- the next minute doesn’t feel like much of a certainty because everything hurts so badly, breathing feels hard. Where the whole...

Andy M. Invisible Medical Errors: A Story of Forced Psychiatry and the Fight for Voice By Andy M. Summary After a brief request to speak with a psychiatrist, I was forcibly hospitalized, restrained, and medicated against my will. Despite full recovery and international success without treatment, I was pulled back into a system that couldn’t see me clearly. This is my story—and my call for accountability and change. That was just a few years after my first experience with psychosis in my early twenties. I had already overcome a mental health crisis, rebuilt my life, and thrived. I...

Melissa Faulkner An Invitation to Come Alongside Reflections on Chronic Illness, Healing, and Patient Safety By Melissa Faulkner, RN MSN This is my written submission for the World Patient Safety Day storytelling project. I live with mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), and dysautonomia. Although I have lived with these conditions all my life, they became profoundly disabling around 2013–2014. It took seven years from becoming severely ill to receive the diagnoses I suspected all along. When my health collapsed, I lost my nursing career,...