Trigger warning

This episode includes discussion of severe postnatal mental health challenges, including postpartum psychosis, hospitalization, and panic. If you or someone you know needs medical assistance, please contact your healthcare professional.

If you’re in Canada and need support right now:

• Call or text 9-8-8 – Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24/7/365, bilingual.
  Youth & young adults: Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868 or text 686868 (24/7).
• Find additional federal & provincial/territorial resources at Canada.ca/mental-health.
• If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.
  
  

Why You Should Listen

When new motherhood collides with a medical emergency, sleepless nights, and overwhelming pressure, the result can be life-threatening—but also deeply misunderstood. In this raw and courageous conversation, Cara shares her firsthand experience with postpartum psychosis, from a terrifying onset to full recovery and renewal.

Whether you’re a parent, clinician, or advocate, this episode reminds us how vital it is to listen without judgment, recognize early warning signs, and respond with compassion and urgency. Cara’s journey sheds light on both the fragility and strength of mothers navigating unseen battles—and the power of the right support at the right time.

Episode overview

When Cara welcomed twins via C-section in Scotland, early feeding difficulties, sleep deprivation, and a sudden medical complication spiraled into postpartum psychosis. After a terrifying crisis and an ambulance call, Cara was admitted to a Mother–Baby Unit, where specialized, compassionate care helped her stabilize, bond safely with her babies, and reclaim her sense of self. Years later—now a nurse—she shares what recovery looks like, how family and clinicians can recognize red flags, and why empathetic, practical support matters.

What we cover

• Postpartum depression vs. postpartum psychosis: how they differ; why psychosis needs urgent medical attention.
  
  
• Cara’s timeline: birth complications, NICU stay, sleep loss, escalating symptoms, and a critical turning point.
  
  
• Barriers to help: “It’s just motherhood” minimization, stigma, and the role of a strong advocate (a paramedic, in Cara’s case).
  
  
• Specialized care: the Mother–Baby Unit model—why it works, what stabilization looked like, and family decision-making when capacity is limited.
  
  
• Life after psychosis: fear of relapse, building inner strength, self-advocacy, and returning to caregiving and work with renewed empathy.
  
  
• How to support a parent in crisis: listen and validate, reduce judgment, watch for abrupt changes, and help them access professional care quickly.
  
  

Episode Highlights

• 00:00 Welcome & content warning
  
  
• 01:30 Level-setting: what postpartum psychosis is (and isn’t)
  
  
• 06:45 Pregnancy, twins, and birth story
  
  
• 10:20 Medical complication; babies in NICU; no sleep
  
  
• 15:00 “Something’s wrong”: self-advocacy meets minimization
  

In this episode, Ursula and Christine are joined by Tara Cowling, Founder and President of Medlior Health Outcomes Research—a Canadian leader in real-world evidence (RWE), health technology assessment (HTA), and health outcomes research. Together, they explore how health data can be transformed into actionable insights that improve care, trust, and outcomes for patients.

Tara shares her journey from her early work with NICE in the UK to leading an independent research consultancy in Canada. She explains how better data access and health literacy can prevent missed diagnoses, improve early detection, and strengthen public confidence in healthcare systems.

From data privacy and interoperability to the promise of AI and next-generation patient registries, this conversation unpacks how collaboration between patients, researchers, and decision-makers can shape a smarter, more equitable future for healthcare.

Why You Should Listen

• Discover how data trust and transparency affect patient outcomes.
• Learn what “quality” means in real-world evidence and why transparency and reproducibility matter.
• Understand the role of health literacy and interpretation in how patient data is collected and used.
• Hear how AI and predictive analytics are redefining the future of healthcare data.
• Explore how long-term patient registries and real-world insights can drive policy change and better funding decisions.

Episode Highlights

[00:02:00] Meet Tara Cowling — Founder and President of Medlior Health Outcomes Research shares her journey into data and healthcare innovation.

[00:07:15] When data goes wrong — real stories that show why accessible, linked data can save lives.

[00:10:00] Mental health and data — Tara explains why mental health checkups should be as routine as dental visits.

[00:12:30] Health literacy and trust — how communication and transparency build confidence in data use.

[00:16:00] Defining quality data — what makes research reliable: transparency, reproducibility, and context.

[00:21:00] The promise of AI and real-world evidence — how technology and patient data can drive personalized, equitable care.

[00:22:30] Building the future — Tara’s vision through the Avita Health Foundation for long-term patient registries that shape better health systems.

Want to Share Your Voice?

If you’re a patient or caregiver, you can join Patient Voice Connect to share your experiences and help shape healthcare here.

Join our email list to get new episode updates here.

Together, we can bring more voices to the table and shape the future of healthcare.

Share this episode, leave a review, and follow Patient Voice Partners on LinkedIn to help amplify more voices.

How do you embed patient voices across a complex, research-driven organization—and across a country’s health system? Brigitte Nolet shares how her own journey with psoriatic arthritis shaped her leadership, why Roche Canada created a Chief Patient Experience Officer role held by someone with lived experience, and how collaboration across government, industry, and patient groups can accelerate access to innovative medicines in Canada.

Why you should listen

• A leader’s lived experience guiding decisions that affect millions of patients.
• Practical ways to make patient inclusivity real (beyond town halls and surveys).
• Inside Roche Canada’s Patient Co-Creation Council and what makes it work.
• Why the new Chief Patient Experience Officer role matters—and how it was co-designed with 65+ stakeholders.
• What Canada can learn from Switzerland and Belgium on integrated care and health data.
• A candid look at Canada’s access timelines and the momentum to improve them.
• Actionable takeaways for leaders: listen more, connect more, and don’t anchor in your own beliefs.

Episode highlights (timestamps)

• 00:00 – Welcome & introductions.
• 01:00 – Brigitte’s path: leading Roche Canada and why her psoriatic arthritis shapes how she leads.
• 03:45 – Roche Canada at a glance: ~2,000 employees, end-to-end from research to commercialization.
• 06:00 – Four countries, four systems: what moving internationally taught Brigitte about continuity of care.
• 11:30 – System design that works: a Swiss clinic model with same-visit labs + 30-minute consults; Belgium’s fast health-data platforms.
• 14:00 – Listening as a leadership discipline: the Patient Co-Creation Council and learning from rare-disease communities.
• 19:00 – Creating the Chief Patient Experience Officer role (must include lived experience); how 65+ stakeholders shaped it.
• 22:00 – Momentum beyond industry: Canada’s Drug Agency adding patient voice at the board level.
• 26:00 – Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC): sector snapshot (100k+ jobs, $3.2B annual R&D, $18B economic activity) and the shared goal of faster access.
• 29:30 – The frontier: where biology meets informatics—gene therapies, CAR-T, subcutaneous, oral oncology, AI.
• 31:30 – What’s next: societal perspectives in HTA, interprovincial data interoperability, and cutting red tape.
• 35:00 – Rapid-fire: leadership mantra—“listen more, connect more”—and book recs (Kate Quinn).

Want to Share Your Voice?

If you’re a patient or caregiver, you can join Patient Voice Connect to share your experiences and help shape healthcare here.

Join our email list to get new episode updates here.

Together, we can bring more voices to the table and shape the future of healthcare.

Share this episode, leave a review, and follow Patient Voice Partners on LinkedIn to help amplify more voices.