People First Radio – June 05, 2025People First Radio – June 05, 2025
People First Radio
Journalist Luke Galati shares his experience of bipolar disorder, psychiatric hospitalisation and storytelling, while public health voices discuss safer supply, stigma and health-focused responses to the toxic drug crisis. The episode blends personal stories with policy discussions aimed at mental health and addiction recovery.
0:00•6 Jun 2025
Psych Wards, Safer Supply and Second Chances on People First Radio
Episode Overview
- Hospital stays for psychiatric care can be frightening but are temporary, and maintaining hope and structure helps during long admissions.
- Bipolar I disorder can be episodic; knowing triggers like missed medication, poor sleep and skipped meals is key to seeking help early.
- People living with bipolar disorder can lead successful, creative and professional lives when supported and represented in storytelling.
- Former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe stresses that the toxic drug crisis is driven by an illicit market, not harm reduction or safer supply programmes.
- Advocates argue that prescribed alternatives and evidence-based, health-focused responses are more effective and economical than punitive drug policies.
“I think I'd want them to know just like... this is temporary.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This episode of People First Radio lines up several, stitching together hospital wards, courtrooms, basketball courts, and community halls into one big conversation about mental health and substance use. Journalist and documentarian Luke Galati leads the way with a candid account of living with bipolar I and spending three months in a psychiatric ward. He talks about fear, forced medication and those long, quiet hours between brief medical check-ins.
Yet he keeps circling back to hope, stressing, “This is temporary… even if you do go through it and you go through a tough time, like you will get out and there is hope.” Luke explains how his CBC radio piece “Dreaming of Better” and his writing grew from a desire to make hospital stays less mysterious. He weaves his own story together with interviews from other people with bipolar disorder and the professionals who cared for him.
Along the way, he pushes back on stereotypes, noting that people with bipolar can be “incredibly creative” and “super successful”, as long as they learn their triggers and put self-care first. Basketball coaching, radio shows, pizza smuggled into the ward by an uncle – these small details show how connection, structure, and even a dodgy hospital TV room can keep someone grounded.
Luke also shares how being vulnerable as a storyteller made him more open to group therapy and to owning his experience in public. The episode then shifts to former B.C. chief coroner Lisa Lapointe and advocates Leslie McBain and Jodie Patterson, who unpack myths about the toxic drug crisis, safer supply, and the long, messy path from harmful use to wellness.
If you care about recovery, stigma, or how to show up for someone in crisis, this conversation might give you a few new questions to ask – and maybe a bit more patience for yourself and others. Whose story in your life might be waiting to be asked about, gently and without fear?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.