People First Radio

A new audio drama airing on Radio Sidney tells a story of elder financial abuse. Beware Mysterious Mark is a 10 part series airing Thursdays through July. Producer Bill Collins spoke with People First Radio about the play, and the issue it seeks to bring awareness to. “It is a traditional kind of radio play. […]

When it opened in 1921, the Weyburn Mental Hospital was hailed as the last and largest asylum in the British Commonwealth. Managing Madness co-author Erika Dyck writes that in the beginning, it was a symbol of both progress and a bygone era, embodying a set of contradictions from the outset. Dyck is a Canada Research […]

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Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk has been practicing medicine for 15 years, largely working with people living on the streets. Since December, she’s added a new dimension to her work, social media influencer. Wiwcharuk posts under the handle streetdrjill. On Instagram, she has more than 75,000 followers at the time of writing. Her videos cover topics related […]

A Nanaimo supportive housing site celebrated a decade of giving people a home in the community. On a sunny April day, staff and residents at Boundary came together for a 10th anniversary BBQ. Boundary is in central Nanaimo near the hospital, it’s run by Vancouver Island Mental Health Society(VIMHS), the organization behind People First Radio. […]

Erin Dej, associate professor in the department of criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University, has been helping craft a curriculum to teach high school students about homelessness. “We recognize that young people are seeing homelessness, that they are aware of it, and they have questions,” Dej said. “We wanted to create curriculum to help them work […]

Bernie Pauly of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and the University of Victoria speaks about how the toxic drug crisis has unfolded over 10 years as a declared public health emergency. Also featuring the voices of Amanda Farrell-Low, Stephanie Harrington, and Sarah Lee.

Trevor Wideman, a postdoctoral researcher at Vancouver Island University, is looking at municipal governance and health policy, and how it interacts with the toxic drug and housing crises. Christopher Hauchildt is operations coordinator for a community engaged research project called Walk With Me. The two of them spoke with People First Radio about Walk With […]

Gabriola Island playwright Frank Moher is putting his own story on this stage. Boy Player chronicles the author’s experience of being orphaned and moving across a continent in his youth. It’s the third in a series of shows from Western Edge Theatre exploring themes of men’s mental health. Moher visited CHLY to speak about the […]

A University of Victoria PhD student is looking at the intersection between chronic pain and sexuality. “ I’m really looking at understanding people’s stories and experiences. And what I want to understand is how chronic pain affects sexuality and identity in people that live with chronic pain,” said Jenise Finlay, speaking to People First Radio from […]