Charlene Hellson/Unpacking the Backpack, Stacy Ashton with Crisis & Suicide Prevention & Fraser McKenzie from Coast Mental Health

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