“For people in B.C. on social assistance, 82 per cent are food insecure. It’s a sentence”

One in five Vancouver Island families struggles to pay for healthy food, a new study says. A University of Toronto study looking at food security in British Columbia found that families with children younger than 18 are particularly vulnerable. About 20.6 per cent of Islanders with children are food insecure, compared with 11.1 per cent of all Islanders. “It doesn’t look good,” said Valerie Tarasuk, a nutritional sciences professor.  Read the rest of this article at The Times Colonist…

Review of 10 years of shelter data nationwide show no matter where you go in Canada, Indigenous People are over-represented in homeless shelters

OTTAWA — Fewer beds remain empty each night in Canada’s emergency homeless shelters as users stay days, sometimes weeks, longer than they did a decade ago, even as their overall numbers decline.  Read the rest of this article at MetroNews.ca…

Food or Bus Pass? Clawback Creates Hard Choices for British Columbians with Disabilities

When Beth Lowther gives up her transit pass on Sept. 1, she fears a life of social isolation. But she says she has no choice. Lowther is among 35,000 people affected by the British Columbia government’s decision to end a program that provided bus passes to people receiving disability benefits.  Read the rest of this article at The Tyee…

A new study found Chinese, South Asians suffer more severe symptoms than other groups by putting off getting treatment for mental illness

Chinese and South Asian patients experience more severe mental health problems by the time they seek professional help, says a new study that looked at severity of psychotic symptoms and ethnicity.  Read the rest of this article at The Toronto Star…