People First Radio

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 […]