From Where We Stand: Conversations on race and mental health

On December 25th ’21, we lost one of our beloved hosts of this podcast, as Candy Palmater passed away. We’ve come together one more time with hosts Jamar McNeil and Anne-Marie Mediwake as they, along with the producers of this show, share some of their fondest memories of Candy.

We will miss Candy’s powerful insights, funny stories and unique perspectives on so many important issues but especially on matters affecting Canada’s Indigenous communities. We are so incredibly honoured to have had her as part of this podcast.

In our final episode, we are shining the spotlight on the mental health of the BIPOC LGBTQ+ community. According to Rainbow Health Ontario, LGBTQ2S+ people experience stigma and discrimination, and this stigma can have a variety of negative consequences throughout the life span. Large Canadian studies indicate that LGBTQ2S+ people are more likely than heterosexuals to report unmet mental health needs and were more likely to consult mental health practitioners. To help us better understand some of the community’s experiences, we have three guests who share their journey and insights on this episode. Prabhjot Seehra grew up in a traditional South-Asian family and had to navigate his sexual identity as a gay man within traditional family structures, Preity Kumar who also grew up in a traditional Indo-Guyanese community shares the impact of her coming out as a queer woman on some of the most important relationships in her life and 20-year old Levi Nahirney, who knows what its like to navigate many identities after being adopted from Vietnam along with his twin sister and then coming out to his family as transgender when he was just 13. We also have queer-identified psychotherapist, Tenniel Brown, who talks about the mental health impacts of experiencing multiple forms of marginalization at a given time and what we need to do to be better allies to the community.

Here are the various conversations:

@5:39 - Prabhjot Seehra

28:55 - Preity Kumar

@55: 08 - Levi Nahirney

@1:13:48 – Psychotherapist Tenniel Brown

This episode contains discussion on mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis please go to your local hospital or call 911 immediately. For information about services in your area, please visit www.cmha.ca. To reach the Canada Suicide Prevention Service, call 1.833.456.4566 or 1.866.APPELLE in Québec (1.866.277.3553).

Other resources:

Browns Consulting

Psychology Today

Black Therapist List

Ontario College of Social Workers

Ontario Association of Social Workers

Bell Let’s Talk

Canada’s Indian residential school system opened in the 1800s but the legacy of those schools is evident even today showing up in high poverty rates, over-representation of Indigenous children in foster care, a disproportionate number of Indigenous people in the prison system and hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women. And echoing what the community has been saying for a long time, since May of this year, more than 1,300 suspected graves have been found at or near former residential school grounds. In this episode, we speak with two residential school survivors, former First Nations chief Edmund Metatawabin from Fort Albany and Roberta Hill of the Six Nations of the Grand River, who give us first-hand accounts of the abuse and trauma they endured when they attended these residential schools. The episode also features children and grand-children of residential school survivors, Janet Head from Opaskwayak Cree Nation and author David Robertson, who share the lasting impacts these schools have had on their lives and community. Cree family physician, Dr. James Makokis, also gives us an understanding of what intergenerational trauma looks like from a professional lens and leaves us with resources on how intergenerational healing can take place.

Here are the various conversations:

@5:38 – Edmund Metatawabin

@41:39 – Roberta Hill

@56:29 – Janet Head

1:13:53 – David Robertson

1:32:04 – Dr. James Makokis

This episode contains discussion on mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis please go to your local hospital or call 911 immediately. For information about services in your area, please visit www.cmha.ca. To reach the Canada Suicide Prevention Service, call 1.833.456.4566 or 1.866.APPELLE in Québec (1.866.277.3553).

Other Resources:

Bell Let's Talk

Mohawk Institute

David Robertson

Indian Residential School Survivors Society  

According to a report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, more than half of children under the age of 15 in foster care in Canada, are Indigenous. Being a foster child, and especially a racialized foster child, comes with its own set of challenges including stigma, lack of resources, navigating placements with different foster families and the impact on mental health including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic, anxiety disorders, major depression and drug/alcohol abuse. Black and Indigenous children are over-represented in the child welfare system and in today’s episode we are looking at some of those stories – where we hear from BIPOC adults who had to navigate the child welfare system and the impact on their mental health. We speak with one of the former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, Tony Smith, and the founder of a peer-support group for individuals raised in foster care, Foster-Up, Natasha Reimer Okemow. Natasha was a trans-racial adoptee, who also navigated the system from a very young age and is now reclaiming her Indigenous and Jamaican heritage. We also have insights from psychotherapist, Kosu Boudreau, who has personally experienced being in the child welfare system as a former crown ward.

Here are their stories:

Tony Smith: 05:47

Natasha Reimer Okemow: 29:19

Kosu Boudreau:  53:39

Other Resources:    

The Child Welfare Political Action Committee

Youth In Care Canada

Kosu Boudreau

Bell Let’s Talk

Men within the BIPOC community face unique barriers when it comes to taking care of their mental health. Whether it’s cultural stigma or orthodox definitions of masculinity, men have historically shied away from seeking help for their mental health but experiences with racism, micro-aggressions and police brutality are just some of the factors impacting BIPOC men. For example, Indigenous men have a suicide rate that is double that of the Canadian national average. To shed more light on men and their mental health, 20-year student, Shemar Barnett, joins this episode of the podcast to share his story of navigating anti-Black racism and exposure to gun violence at a very young age and how it shaped his approach to mental health. Also featured is PhD candidate and mental health advocate, Varun Joshi, who talks about managing family pressures and expectations while also dealing with depression, addiction and anxiety. To close the episode, counsellor Khan Bouba-Dalambaye shares his insights into how the idea of resilience and strength in BIPOC communities can sometimes be a trap and a barrier to accessing help.

Here are the various conversations:

@04:34 – Shemar Barnett

@23:21 – Varun Joshi

@42:06 - counsellor Khan Bouba-Dalambaye

This episode contains discussion on mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis please go to your local hospital or call 911 immediately. For information about services in your area, please visit www.cmha.ca. To reach the Canada Suicide Prevention Service, call 1.833.456.4566 or 1.866.APPELLE in Québec (1.866.277.3553).

Other resources:

Generation Chosen

SOCH Mental Health

Khan Bouba-Dalambaye

Bell Let’s Talk

Hate crimes have been on the rise across Canada, with a 9% increase in anti-Muslim attacks in 2019 compared to the previous year. And with Muslim women, especially visibly Muslim women, being the target of hate, violence and discrimination, we are looking at the impacts of these traumas on the Muslim community’s mental health. In this episode we speak with author & mental health advocate Shaimaa Kraba, as she recounts being bullied and harassed in school in a post 9/11 world, facing micro-aggressions at work and experiencing anti-Muslim hate not once, but twice in Calgary. We also hear from the editor-in-chief of Muslim Link, Chelby Daigle, as she shares what it was like to first experience anti-Black racism and then be the target of Islamophobia after she converted to Islam in her 20s. Daigle also speaks to the importance of sharing survivor stories as well as ensuring mental health support to victims of hate crimes. You’ll also hear from psychotherapist, Zainib Abdullah, who gives us some context into understanding these traumas and shares resources that listeners can access.

This episode contains discussion on mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis please go to your local hospital or call 911 immediately. For information about services in your area, please visit www.cmha.ca. To reach the Canada Suicide Prevention Service, call 1.833.456.4566 or 1.866.APPELLE in Québec (1.866.277.3553).

Other resources:

Wellnest.ca

https://muslimlink.ca/

http://www.muslimmentalhealth.ca/find/  

Bell Let's Talk

Canada recently announced that it planned to welcome a little more than 400 thousand immigrants in 2021 to become permanent residents. But if you are racially marginalized, what is it like to start a new life in a new country? What are some of the barriers to navigate especially when it comes to taking care of mental health? In this episode you’ll hear from Arzoo Multani, a young South-Asian woman who had to deal with the racism, family stigma and the police first before she got help for her mental health, Petrona Joseph, author and entrepreneur, who’s aiming to destigmatize mental health in the Black community by sharing her own struggles, Amy Go, President of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, who talks about using her advocacy work as her therapy and Ehsan Saadat, an Afghan refugee, who shared what its like to escape Kabul and the Taliban and call Canada home. Psychotherapist Sarah Ahmed also joins us to help us understand the BIPOC experience when it comes to taking care of mental health.  

This episode contains discussion on mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis please go to your local hospital or call 911 immediately. For information about services in your area, please visit www.cmha.ca. To reach the Canada Suicide Prevention Service, call 1.833.456.4566 or 1.866.APPELLE in Québec (1.866.277.3553). 

Other resources:

Wellnest.ca

Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice

Bell Let's Talk

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