Charlene Hellson/Unpacking the Backpack, Stacy Ashton from Crisis Intervention, and Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health.

Bernadine brings you information on several opportunities for education and support. Grandmother, performer, writer, and Indigenous Mental Health Advocate, Charlene Hellson from the Siksika Nation (Blackfoot Confederacy) talks about her one-woman performance “Unpacking the Backpack” which is an educational and experiential monologue that comes from the heart talking about the intergenerational and historical impact of systemic racism on indigenous.

Then Stacy Ashton comes to tell us about a new service available in Canada around Suicide Prevention, 988. She outlines how they are working to “ensure a 24/7 access to a crisis continuum that meets people where they are in suicidal crisis, provide culturally-safe socioeconomic and mental health support without over-relying on police and coercive psychiatric interventions, and continues care until the person in crisis in back in control of their lives.” She gave us crisis lines to reach out to in BC Canada: Mental Health Support Line is 30-6789 (no area code required) and 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433).

And then Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health chats with Bernadine about the services that Coast Mental Health can offer folks in Vancouver BC who are coping with mental health challenges, being unhoused, etc.

Music by Shari Ulrich, Scott Callum, and Edith Wallace

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Peter, Cathleen, and Janell Morin, from the Tahltan nation, join Bernadine to chat about what happens when Alzheimers grabs hold of a family generation after generation, but mostly to describe their loving care of their mother as she makes this journey. So often we hear of older people with Alzheimers unable to care for themselves and/or plagued with a failing memory being left in care homes to wait out their lives. It is a tragic ending to a full life. But with Peter and Cathleen (their sister Nalaine and Dad who couldn’t join us), what is described is an daily act of enveloping their mother in care and loving. Ensuring she is included in family and family is included in her life. It is touching. And sweet. And what we all should be doing. But these siblings have taken it further. Recognizing the legacy of Alzheimer in their family history, they have planned to ensure that they all take care of each other if this is their future too.

Music by Robbie Robertson and Shari Ulrich

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Weetigo on Intergenerational Trauma, Epigenetic Memory, and Superpowers

Weetigo is a brilliant 60s Scoop Survivor and band member of the Poundmaker Cree Nation. Bernadine met him through TikTok where he talks about intergenerational trauma and epigenetic memory from the perspective of indigeneity. His intriguing ideas are based on what we know about trauma that weaves its way through families and is passed on through our DNA and creates within us superpowers. But Weetigo goes further, he brings into that how autism, ADHD, CPTSD, and being gifted fits into intergenerational trauma and epigenetic memory. Join us – then tell us what you think. Is this aligning with your experiences?

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Outsider Arts Festival and Haida Storytelling with Giihlgiigaa Todd DeVries

On ReThreading Madness we chat with the organizers and one of the performers of the Outsider Arts Festival here in Vancouver BC. Kristin Cheung, Executive Director, and Rocky Riobo of Rocky and the Gems give us the inside goods on the what, where, how, and who of this years annual VOAF from art, to performances and films and then workshops. Then Giihlgiigaa Todd DeVries, a Haida Cedar Weaver and storyteller who learned under Woody Morrison,c comes and tells us a story about the importance of the Mask, Mirror, and the Raven.

music by Rocky and the Gems and Shari Ulrich

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TRIGGER WARNING: Explicit descriptions of child sexual abuse

More Than One: Dr. Colin Ross on Dissociative Identities

Dr. Colin Ross, world renown expert of Dissociation, and Bernadine chat about Dissociative Identities: what is it, how to look at it, how the world copes with it, and how you can cope with it. In amongst there they compare DID to schizophrenia and chat about treatment options including medication and ECT.

Dr Colin Ross’ biography is so extensive that to do it justice I would be talking for a long time. So let me give you some key points: He is an internationally renowned clinician, researcher, author and lecturer in the field of dissociation and trauma-related disorders. He is the founder and President of The Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma in Texas and the Past President of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. He is Canadian. He provides treatment, consultation, educational and supervision services and has done so for over 30 years in Texas. He has written 36 books and over 260 papers mostly dealing with trauma and dissociation. And if anyone can talk about Dissociative Identities – it is Dr. Colin Ross. Bernadine and Colin have known each other professionally for – several decades. Dr. Ross wrote the foreword to Fox’s memoir – Coming To Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist.

Music by Shari Ulrich

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A Glimmer of Hope around Recovery wieth Susi Milne

TRIGGER warning Talk about alcoholism and substance abuse along with sexual trauma as a young child. Some profanity during spoken word recital.

Bernadine chats with the effervescent Susi Milne about their recovery from alcoholism and substance abuse (Oxycodone and Ativan). There is literally no one who tells a story like Susi can and while taking you through her journey to rock bottom she is able to keep us laughing and entranced as she brings us to her their recovery.

Beyond recovery, Milne is a sober Canadian artist, philosopher and poet residing on the traditional unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsweilatuth Nations. Known for her drawings, watercolours, and mixed media art pieces, Milne's works range from paintings, paper and textile sculptures and video/photo-based art to poetry/performance art. Milne's eclectic practice is informed through life and work as "Living Art". Her twenty-something year career in the public service, lastly as a senior manager of emergency services is an achievement that she has documented as performance art. A dedicated and picturesque history with several founding artists run centres including a seminal performance curating Sniffy the Rat in the eighties (see same title under CBC Archives) Milne's on-going engagement with the robust Vancouver art community carries into the present day and informs her multi-media practice.

Milne has exhibited and performed her artwork and performance/poetry nationally and internationally over the years. Recently her multi-media video presentation QUANTUM SMACK has been included in https://digitalstories.ca/. Milne's work was featured in the IMAPON exhibition SPACE at McBride Park, Vancouver. An on line exhibition PERSONA through IMAPON LOCO MOTO Arts (https://imapon.org/Co-Vid-EO/); features eighteen watercolour/pen and ink paintings that were all sold into private collections during covid.. Daily creative media content is published on her Instagram #tibbedragon777, and on her dedicated Instagram art page #susimilne777artwork.

Milne lives gratefully and in the heavenly bliss of her handmade art abode overlooking the seaside of the Pacific Northwest coastal mountain range as she recovers outloud.

Music by Shari Ulrich and Tears for Fears

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Are We Old Yet? Women talking about Aging.

Today on RTM, I talk with three different women all of whom are over 60 years of age and all of whom would agree that our mental health as we age has nothing to do with fashion, interior design, beauty, cooking, or the health and wellbeing of our spouses or children. So, what does it have to do with? It is about their political actions, entrepreneurship, adventures and a future that is as exciting as what they have done so far.

Ellen Woodsworth, 75, was born into activism. In 1971 she chained herself in the House of Commons for women’s right to choose and went off to cofound the Wages for Housework movement and got unpaid work in the Canadian census. Later elected the first lesbian city councillor in Canada, she and Clr Anne Roberts chaired the first Canadian Gender Equity Strategy for the City of Vancouver. She is now Co President WILPF, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Canada, speaker and intersectional consultant on cities and Matriarch Women Transforming Cities.

Maggie Andrew, 64, is a child of divorce and foster care, by the age 17 she was on her own. She worked up until her early 50s when a corporate takeover had her laid off. Its hard as an older woman to get hired, so instead she bought her favourite craft store essentially creating her own rewarding and challenging job. She has managed to weather COVID but as she nears retirement age she is hoping to sell in the next year or so. Maggie has never married and has no children of her own.

Eileen Hoeter, 64, has been many things over the course of her life and throughout it all she consistently shows a fierce passion for life itself. She has worked in the Vancouver Film Industry while simultaneously buying property. Not always easy for a woman even in 1990 – just 30 years ago. She owns several properties here but also has a BnB in Mexico and we are talking to her in the midst of a very busy day for her.

Far from being the retired rocking chair woman drinking tea in the sun, these women demonstrate the dynamic contributions women continue to make well into the senior years.

Music by Shari Ulrich

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Alex Sangha from Sher Vancouver and Isabella Mori on her book Believe Me about mental health and addiction

Bernadine chats with Alex Sangha about Sher Vancouver Gala, Emergence, and IMigrant. Alex Sangha's birth name is Amar Singh Sangha. He was born in Gravesend, Kent, England and raised in Surrey and North Delta, British Columbia, Canada. His mother, Jaspal Kaur Sangha, and his father, Dalbir Singh Sangha, are of the Sikh faith originally from Punjab, India. Alex has an older and younger brother and a half-brother from his Dad's second marriage. Alex is an award-winning social worker. He has an MSc in Public Administration and Public Policy from the Department of Government from the London School of Economics. He has a Master of Social Work from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as well as a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of British Columbia with a First Class Standing. In addition, Alex has an Associate in Arts Degree from Douglas College in New Westminster, BC and he graduated Grade 12 from Frank Hurt Secondary from Surrey, BC. Alex is the Founder of the Sher Vancouver LGBTQ Friends Society which produced the award-winning documentary - My Name Was January. Alex is the recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada. Alex lives with Bipolar.

Then Bernadine talks with Isabella Mori about her third upcoming book, Believe Me, out in the Spring of 2024. Isabella has published two previous books of poetry, A bagful of haiku -- 87 imperfections, and Isabella Mori's Teatable Book. She won the Cecilia Lamont prize for poetry in 2018. Mori also writes short stories, novels and non-fiction, and was a translation contributor (from English to German) in Reading Canada, a profile of Canada's diverse literature commissioned for the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair. She has a Masters in Education and works in the mental health/addiction field. She lives in Vancouver.

Believe me is a hybrid text focused on mental health and addiction.


music by Shari Ulrich

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Note: Please access the transcript (see below) so that you can follow along with David as he speaks. A stroke has damaged his ability to talk and at times it is hard to understand his words

A Renewed Call for a Mad Pride Revolution on the 20th Anniversary of Hunger Strike: with David Oaks and Debra Nunez from MindFreedom

Bernadine chats with David Oaks and Debra Nunez about his work as a civil rights activist, co-founder and from ED of MindFreedom International based in Eugene Oregon. Mind Freedom is an independently funded nonprofit that actively fights for the human rights of those with lived experience of mental health challenges. It is accredited by the United Nations as a non governmental organization, essentially an NGO with CRS status, which means they are consulted on matters important to mental health. As they say, “MindFreedom International is where democracy is finally getting hands on with the mental health system. They challenge abuse by the psychiatric and drug industry, support psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers and promote safe and humane and effective options in mental health.” And they have been doing it since the Mad Pride Revolution started in the 1970s as they say on their website in a spirit of mutual cooperation, mind freedom leads a nonviolent revolution of freedom, equality, truth and human rights that unites people affected by the mental health system with movements for justice everywhere.

Up until 2012, Oaks was their Executive Director and then he fell from a ladder of fall which broke his neck and left him paralyzed. And I say this, not because it is important to the work he continues to do, but as a segue into understanding that David currently is unable to speak in the manner he once did. However, rather than suppress or silence his very powerful voice, we are interviewing him. His partner Deborah Nunes, will be a part of this interview and you may hear her every once in a while help make clear what he is saying. It is difficult at times to hear him clearly and it may be helpful while listening to close your eyes. However, we have also included a transcript of his interview on our website. If you would like to listen to the interview while reading the transcript, you can do so at www.rethreading madness.ca.

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The incredible JD Derbyshire who is a writer, comedian, mad activist, performer, playwright, theatre maker, director, inclusive educator and innovator joins Bernadine in RTM. We talk about being mad and the need for individuals who live with mental health challenges to have agency in their lives and to consider coming out. And we laughed… we laughed a lot.

(music used "It's Alright by Shari Ulrich)

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