Kendall Worth: This is a story about William (not his real name), a man who was forcibly handcuffed by police and taken to the QEII when he had a mental health breakdown. William came out of the hospital feeling even worse than when he went in.
Reporter Kendall Worth meets up with Marie and Alice, two women on social assistance who dream about the day when they can afford to live somewhere where during the summer months they can have a BBQ out on their back decks or on their balconies. “Summertime is the most socially isolated time of year for the both of us, because of lack of funds to do things and the extra time spent by our lonesome,” they tell him.
Crisis line call centres are a core element of Nova Scotia’s mental health crisis response. We should know how well they are meeting the needs of people experiencing mental distress, their support network, and the broader community. But independent evaluations of the Nova Scotia mental health crisis line have not been produced or made available, writes Dr. Jamie Livingston.
“Queer and trans youth understand that reporting sexualized violence is not a safe option for them because they feel, and rightfully so, that they will not be believed and that their cases will not be understood within the current legal system.” Carmel Farahbakhsh of the Youth Project addresses the Subcommittee to Define Defunding the Police.
Yesterday afternoon Dr. Jamie Livingston presented to the members of the Subcommittee to Define Defunding the Police. ” I believe that the majority of crisis calls in Halifax can and should be diverted to non-police-involved teams, ideally led by trained peer support workers since health professionals possess coercive powers that may replicate police-like approaches.”
Kendall Worth: Even though in the lives of the people I advocate for “normal” may seem different from what rich people would consider normal, people living in poverty are very much looking forward to the day that things like in-person dining at soup kitchens etc are re-opened.
Ray Bates: When our autoimmune systems become reactive to “triggers” those catalysts will prompt our bodies to combat what it perceives as threatening. Those reactions could possibly result in ailments that have severe negative impacts on our bodies and tragically for our lives. I
The lockdown is making it hard to meet the census deadline for people who cannot afford Internet access or phones, writes Kendall Worth in an open letter to the minister in charge.
Raymond Sheppard writes about the role of racism in the Lionel Desmond case. “In the African Nova Scotian community, after facing anti-Black racism and hate trauma, individuals and the community try to move on and we have been taught to rise above it. However, the effects of this kind of trauma run deep and do not just go away.”
Making involuntary movements, fidgeting, and talking to yourself are the kinds of things that draw the public’s attention, and next thing you know there’s police or security asking you to leave, writes Kendall Worth. That’s not fair.