podcast | #16Days #Activism #Gender-Based #Violence #Nanaimo #ViolenceSilences #NanaimoSpeaksOut @HavenSociety @ViuWomen @NanaimoFamLife | LISTEN: https://t.co/GAvdcUK1rY pic.twitter.com/tdy8eg3pAm

— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) November 20, 2017

Mental-health advocates are praising a British Columbia police chief for his leadership after he made an impassioned plea for first responders to take care of their mental well-being

Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich made his comments toward the end of a 25-minute speech on Sunday at a ceremony honouring Constable John Davidson. The Abbotsford traffic officer had been responding to a report of a stolen car two weeks ago when he was killed in a daytime shootout that has numbed the Fraser Valley community and drawn the province’s first responders together in mourning.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…

Image: DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The B.C. government will reopen the Riverview psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam as a 105-bed, mental-health and addiction-wellness centre, but the B.C. Schizophrenia Society believes losing the beds at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction is unfortunate.

The new centre is expected to open in late 2019, replacing the current Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction. The new centre, which was already promised by the former Liberal government in 2015, adds only 11 beds.  Read the rest of this article at The Vancouver Sun…

Image: Ward Perrin/Vancouver Sun

In this month’s Currents…Community good will goes a long way to help VIMHS residents…Anne Turner’s journey with art therapy gets public viewing…VIMHS opens 9-bed sobering centre in Campbell River…VIMHS joined the 2017 suicide prevention awareness campaigns…Peter Giovando retires from the VIMHS board of directors…Growing up with a parent with mental illness: Natasha Box’s story…Service expansion…new workshops…strategic planning…and more news.
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