People First Radio – February 29, 2024People First Radio – February 29, 2024
People First Radio
People First Radio features Dr. Alex Nataros on ADHD and neurodivergence, Port Hardy’s CAO Heather Nelson-Smith on a new community Situation Table, and advocate Adrienne Montani on rising child poverty in British Columbia. The conversations connect mental health, addiction, harm reduction, housing, and income supports across one broad social landscape.
0:00•1 Mar 2024
ADHD, Community Safety Tables, and Rising Child Poverty in B.C.
Episode Overview
- ADHD can be both overdiagnosed and underdiagnosed, making careful assessment and de‑stigmatising language crucial.
- Stimulant medication may calm people with genuine ADHD and can significantly improve learning and daily functioning.
- Viewing ADHD and other conditions through a neurodivergent lens helps shift focus from deficit to strengths and "gifts".
- Port Hardy’s Situation Table brings multiple agencies together weekly to quickly support people at acutely elevated risk of harm through voluntary outreach.
- Child poverty in B.C. is rising again, with many poor children in working families, highlighting the need for stronger income supports, affordable housing, childcare, and fair wages.
“We have to just be gentle with ourselves and with those that we love and those that we teach… and make more space for compassion.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? People First Radio’s 29 February 2024 edition threads together ADHD, community safety, and child poverty, showing how mental health, addiction, and social policy all collide in everyday life. First up, Port Hardy family doctor Dr.
Alex Nataros shares his lived and clinical experience of ADHD, which he calls “perhaps the most overdiagnosed and simultaneously underdiagnosed condition.” He talks about a distracted modern world, why formal assessment matters, and how stimulants can be “transformative” for those with genuine ADHD.
He also pushes back on stigma, pointing out that traits linked to ADHD often appear in entrepreneurs and risk-takers, asking, “how boring would the world be if we were all the same?” and stressing a compassionate, neurodivergent lens on difference. Staying in Port Hardy, Chief Administrative Officer Heather Nelson-Smith explains the town’s new Situation Table, a weekly, cross-agency meeting aimed at people facing “acutely elevated risk” of harm.
You’ll hear how 14 partners — from RCMP and ambulance to mental health, Indigenous nations, schools and charities — plan quick, voluntary outreach rather than punishment, particularly around issues like addiction, homelessness and youth at risk. Her stories from the Safer Places project and the town’s rising homelessness highlight just how closely housing, harm reduction, and community safety are tied together. Finally, First Call’s executive director Adrienne Montani walks through B.C.’s 2023 Child Poverty Report Card.
She notes that 14% of children – over 126,000 – are living in poverty, that rates are rising again as pandemic benefits recede, and that 40% of children in lone-parent families are poor. She links income supports, housing, childcare and fair wages to better outcomes, and reminds listeners that most poor children live in working families.
If you care about addiction, recovery, and the wider systems that shape people’s lives, this episode might leave you asking: what could change in your own community?
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