“The guy is so smart, his rapid-fire delivery so clean and confident, his wit so casual, copious, and reassuring that he makes the journey feel safe for the audience. He gives himself; he feels less alone and we feel less alone” [Georgia Straight]

Author, musician and slam poet Brendan McLeod visited with VIMHS resource development coordinator Gillian Baker, in the above image, after his performance of Brain at Nanaimo’s Port Theatre. Brendan explores his experiences with mental illness — specifically OCD — in his acclaimed monologue, now on tour after numerous fringe theatre performances. Vancouver Island Mental Health Society was featured as a community partner at the sold-out Port Theatre show. People First Radio will share an interview with Brendan McLeod soon…watch this space!

More than 230 Canadians a day are victims of family violence that are reported to police, Canada’s chief public health officer says in releasing a new report on a seldom discussed issue

Dr. Gregory Taylor’s 2016 report on the state of public health focuses on family violence, including sexual, emotional and financial abuse, as well as neglect. Taylor calls the statistics staggering.  Read the rest of this article at CBC…

An urgently needed study of the diagnosis and medication of ADHD reveals a disease ruthlessly marketed by drug companies, scientists and self-help authors

Months before I was diagnosed, I had already fallen into the clutches of what the New York Times journalist Alan Schwarz calls the “ADHD industrial complex”. In his new book, ADHD Nation, Schwarz details how this circle of pharmaceutical companies, scientists, patient advocacy groups and self-help authors have succeeded in so diluting the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, and then so ruthlessly marketing it, that today nearly one in seven young people in the US, and one in five boys, has a diagnosis.  Read the rest of this article at The Guardian…

“We need to continue to bring the community together to talk about the seriousness of the overdose crisis and how better to respond,” says Dr. Paul Hasselback, Island Health’s Medical Health Officer for Central Vancouver Island

Nanaimo and area residents are invited to a public forum on Tuesday November 15 to learn about the opioid overdose crisis, the impact it’s having on the community and the work underway to prevent and manage overdoses and support those with opioid dependency who are at risk for an overdose.  Read more at Island Health…

The big difference between the current welfare payments and a basic income…would be that basic income would be paid automatically, rather than requiring a whole bunch of paperwork and constant monitoring to prove eligibility

André Picard — The way we deal with adults living in poverty is a mess. Whether you believe in a handout or a hand-up approach, what those in need tend to get these days is the back of the hand. The social-welfare system is parsimonious, judgmental, demeaning, complex and bureaucratic. Worst of all, it tends to perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty. So is there a better way? That is the basic question that Ontario hopes to answer with its much-anticipated pilot project, testing a “basic income” approach.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…