People First Radio

Rebekah Young, Head of Inclusion and Resilience Economics at Scotiabank, discusses a recent column in which she called on Canada to double its social housing stock.

"Having some stress in your day also means that you're having more interactions with humans, and that there's also more positive events with other humans, and that good things happen"

On January 16, Nanaimo City Council declared the overdose prevention site on 264 Nicol Street a nuisance property after receiving a report from city staff detailing social disorder surrounding the site. The site is run by the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU), and the designation means that the city can impose cost recovery […]

On January 16, Nanaimo City Council declared the overdose prevention site on 264 Nicol Street a nuisance property after receiving a report from city staff detailing social disorder surrounding the site. The site is run by the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU), and the designation means that the city can impose cost recovery […]

A 500 million dollar fund is being made available for non profits in British Columbia to purchase existing housing. The fund is going to be managed and distributed through a non profit society created by the Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA),the BC Non-Profit Housing Association‘ (BCNPHA), and the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC (CHF BC). […]

The BC Centre on Substance Use was established in 2017. It has a mandate to develop, help implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to substance use and addiction. Since 2016, British Columbia has been in a public health emergency due to deaths from illicit drug toxicity. Cheyenne Johnson, Executive Director of the BC Centre on Substance […]

Giuseppe Ganci of The Last Door Society discusses the concept of recovery capital and shares his perspective on the current state of addiction treatment options in BC.  

The Canadian Mental Health Association is helping bring a new approach to respond to mental health emergencies in BC. It was announced late last year that 12 Peer Assisted Care Teams, or PACT for short, are coming to the province. The teams are made up of one mental health professional, and one peer with lived […]

Program Chair Shannon Dames provides an update on Vancouver Island University’s Psychedelic Assisted Therapy program, which welcomed its first cohort in September 2022 for a one year term.

Dr. Melanie Badali, registered psychologist and member of Anxiety Canada’s scientific advisory committee, discusses panic attacks and panic disorder. The discussion covers what a panic attack is, how common they are, what you could do if you experience one, and how you can help if someone you know is going through one.

Most people are likely familiar with the idea of the poverty line, as in the phrase “living below the poverty line.” How do we figure out where that line is? Canada’s official measure of poverty is the Market Basket Measure. To learn more about how we conceptualize and track poverty in Canada, People First Radio’s […]

Six years ago Vancouver Island Mental Health Society’s Boundary Supportive Housing opened its doors in Nanaimo. What exactly is supportive housing? And what’s the relationship like between the housing and the surrounding community? To find out, People First Radio’s Joe Pugh paid a visit to the building, and spoke with Janet Rowley and Camille Eade, […]

Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson is British Columbia’s new minister for Social Development and Poverty Reduction. Malcolmson had previously been the province’s minister for Mental Health and Addictions. She joined People First Radio to speak about the tasks outlined in her mandate letter, and what changes within a ministry when a new minister takes over.   […]

Coverage of a new supervised consumption site opening in Nanaimo at the corner of Albert and Dunsmuir streets. Excerpts from a November 21 Nanaimo City Council meeting at which councilors questioned Ann Livingston on matters related to the overdose prevention site on Nicol street run by the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users. Ann Livingston, […]

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. The Kainai Nation, also known as The Blood Tribe It’s the largest […]

With Canada’s National Housing Strategy hitting the halfway point of its ten year term, People First Radio featured a pair of conversations exploring the strategy’s progress thus far. One of those conversations was with Jacqueline Gahagan, Associate Vice President of Research at Mount Saint Vincent University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Gahagan’s background is in health […]

In 2017 the government of Canada launched a ten year National Housing Strategy, with the goal of reducing chronic homelessness by 50 per cent and removing over half a million families from housing need. We’re now five years into that plan. Ren Thomas is an associate professor at Dalhousie University who researches housing policy. She’s […]

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. In Manitoba, the award went to KIDTHINK Children’s Mental health Centre, a […]

Nikki Sutherland, Greg Cook, and A.J. Withers discuss their experiences on the front lines of the homelessness crisis in Toronto when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. They’ve each contributed to the book Displacement City, which is composed of eighteen different chapters offering firsthand perspectives from street nurses, lawyers, people living in the shelter system, […]

Chaque province et territoire Canadien vient de donner un prix pour l’innovation en matière de santé mentale et en matière de dépendance. People First Radio vous apporte une série de conversations avec les lauréats. Au Québec, le prix était donne a une entreprise pour leur programmation visant a aider des jeunes. Le programme s’appelle T’as […]

After 20 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and three tours of Afghanistan, Ryan Hawkyard was dealing with the effects of post traumatic stress. A mental health professional recommended he try acting, and Hawkyard was quickly able to see benefits. Now, he’s the coordinator for Soldiers in the arts, a program that brings veterans and […]

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. In British Columbia, the award went to Cherokee Bent. Bent has been […]

"I was very shy when I first heard about my winning, I'm just a regular person like everybody else...I just want to give my supporters all the credit, because without them it wouldn't be possible"

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the award went to the St. John’s Status […]

"We're seeing more and more that trying to improve the mental health of the caregiver is [also] really really beneficial to the person who is living with dementia"

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. At the start of the year, The Canadian Mental Health Association’s Saskatchewan […]

Each province and territory in Canada has recognized one program or individual within its borders with an Award for Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions Care. People First Radio presents a series of conversations with a number of the recipients from across Canada. In the Northwest Territories, the award went to the Supporting Wellbeing program. […]

In late 2019, just before the start of the pandemic, Scott Schieman embarked on a long term study of Canadian workers looking for insight into the interplay between people’s work and well being. Schieman is a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and the Canada research chair in the social constructs of health. […]

Kiffer Card is the Scientific Director for the Institute for Social Connection and an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University. He’s seen evidence in his research that burnout and social isolation could be linked. He’s also found that people with hybrid work setups report significantly better mental health than either those who exclusively work from […]

For those wanting to learn more about the housing affordability crisis, one resource is BC Housing’s podcast, Let’s Talk Housing. Now in its second season, it features episodes on a variety of issues ranging from stigma around supportive housing, the role of the private sector in housing development, and how climate change impacts decisions around […]

Celia Haig-Brown and Randy Fred recently finished a tour to promote Tsqelmucwilc, a book that shares the testimonies of survivors of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Tsqelmucwilc is a Secwepemc phrase that loosely translates to “we return to being human again”. The book builds on Haig-Brown and Fred’s work in Resistance and Renewal a 1988 […]

Anxiety Canada CEO Judith Law discusses the organization’s podcast, Our Anxiety Stories, as well as societal awareness of anxiety. First broadcast October 20 2022.

Nanaimo’s former John Howard Society has a new name, Connective Support Society. Connective Executive Director John Horn spoke with People First Radio about the name change, and the wide variety of work the society does in the community.

Kerri Isham of Power Up Education speaks about an upcoming full day workshop exploring the issue of sex trafficking on Vancouver Island.

The New Brunswick Health Council, along with the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Health and Education & Early Childhood Development released the results of the most recent student wellness survey. It was completed by more than 40 000 students from grades 6 through 12, which is more than 75 percent of the eligible population. […]

Alina Pete is a cartoonist from the Little Pine First Nation in Saskatchewan. Their short graphic novel Brain Gremlins chronicles their experience with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Brain Gremlins appears in Through The Labyrinths of the Mind, a graphic novel anthology dedicated to mental health. It was released earlier this year by Vancouver publisher Cloudscape Comics […]

Seeing a superhero dealing with schizophrenia inspired writer Bevan Thomas to create a new project. He and publisher Cloudscape Comics brought together a group of 11 artists, each of whom would explore their own experiences with mental health and mental illness in a graphic novel anthology called Through The Labyrinths of the Mind. In addition […]

Stanley Q Woodvine wanted to bring back a lost tradition to the recycling depot he uses – Free Hot Dog Day. First though, he needed to find a Barbecue. Woodvine has been without a home since 2004. He maintains a blog and has a sizable twitter following, and for a number of years excerpts from […]

Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a Cree-Austrian storyteller and writer from the James Smith Cree Reserve. He also goes by the moniker Starblanket Storyteller. Kakwinokanasum is preparing for the release of his first novel, My Indian Summer, which comes out later this September. It’s a journey decades in the making. The Starblanket Storyteller spoke to People First […]

When talking about housing affordability, a lot of conversations centre on the issue of supply. Yushu Zhu of Simon Fraser University thinks that we need to focus on How we build housing, rather than just how much housing we build. Zhu argues that the way we analyze dwellings can be too focused on economics, and […]

Scientists often use animals to help us learn about ourselves. One important thing to keep in mind when studying lab rats, is, well the fact that they’re in a lab – and not their natural environment. What’s the impact of that? Kelly Lambert is a professor of Behavioural neuroscience at the University of Richmond, and […]

M-J Milloy is a research scientist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and an epidemiologist by training. He was part of a team that did research into how and whether drug users avoided harm reduction measures during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers compared results across a number of North […]

Excerpts from Nanaimo’s event to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, held in Maffeo Sutton Park August 31 2022. Speakers include Sarah Lovegrove, MP Lisa Marie Barron, MLA Sheila Malcolmson, Lenae Silva, and Aimee Chalifoux.

After 25 years at the negotiating table, the Wei Wai Kum First Nation and the province of British Columbia have reached an incremental agreement to transfer more than 2200 hectares of territorial land to Wei Wai Kum. The land is west of Campbell River, and the provincial government calls the agreement an early benefit as […]

The mental health of psychologists has long been a taboo topic according to a group of researchers including Stephen Lewis, a professor at the University of Guelph. Lewis was part of a team that recently published a study into the mental health of more than two thousand psychology faculty and graduate students. The study found […]

In a community where most of the land is privately owned, how can people ensure the ecosystem is preserved for future generations? That’s the question facing the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust. Their answer is to take a community oriented approach to protecting the natural landscape. The land trust’s Nature Stewards program is asking folks […]

Community safety programs are sprouting in many cities and towns across Canada. In Winnipeg’s Osborne Village, the SABE Peace Walkers look to take an indigenous led, relationship based de-escalation approach to provide incidental support and safe walks to the community. All of the SABE Peace Walkers are provincially licensed in security, and trained in crisis […]

Dave LaBerge, Manager of Community Safety with the City of Nanaimo, speaks about the rollout of the city’s new Community Safety Officer program.  

Nous sommes en plein été et bien sûr, en été, la chaleur s’installe. Peut-être avez-vous remarqué que vous avez la mèche courte quand le thermomètre monte. Ça pourrait être le cas si vous êtes un joueur de baseball dans la ligue majeure. Joël Guérette, de l’Université de Québec en Outaouais, a récemment trouvé que quand il […]

The Nanaimo 7-10 Club Society has been providing meals to the hungry since 1985. Since last August however, they’ve been without a building, as their old location on Prideaux Street was demolished to make way for supportive housing. They’ve switched to a bag lunch to go format, and are still looking for a new home […]