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.   […]