People First Radio – October 24, 2024People First Radio – October 24, 2024
People First Radio
Montreal author Susan Grundy reflects on six decades of caring for her sister through psychiatric institutions, stigma and shifting roles in their relationship, while Cowichan coordinator Denise MacArthur explains how restorative justice offers a community-based alternative to traditional criminal courts. Together, their stories examine responsibility, compassion and more human responses to mental illness and harm.
0:00•25 Oct 2024
Mad Sisters, Tough Systems and Second Chances: People First Radio
Episode Overview
- Family caregivers can become default decision-makers in under-resourced mental health systems, often without adequate support.
- Separating a loved one from their diagnosis can reduce conflict and increase compassion, especially during crises.
- Long-term psychiatric care has shifted over decades, yet many hospital conditions and access barriers remain deeply frustrating.
- Caregiving can slip into trying to ‘save’ someone, which may undermine their autonomy and sense of agency.
- Restorative justice processes ask responsible parties to face those harmed, accept responsibility, and agree on concrete steps to repair the damage.
“Caring is very different than saving. And honestly, I think that compassion is the first step to recovery, if there is any kind of recovery.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This edition of People First Radio brings together two powerful conversations about mental health, family responsibility, and what real accountability can look like. First up, author Susan Grundy shares the long, complicated story behind her memoir *Mad Sisters*, chronicling six decades alongside her older sister Nancy, who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar disorder.
Susan talks frankly about growing up in the late 1960s when, as she puts it, “boy, I don't think anyone knew what schizophrenia was,” and about watching Nancy move through secondary school, a 13-year stay in a locked psychiatric ward, group homes, and finally independent living. You’ll hear how their childhood “cold and distant” relationship shifted into an adversarial dynamic, then into a full-on caregiver–care recipient power struggle, and eventually into what Susan now calls a “loving, caring relationship”.
She reflects on stigma in medicine, traumatic hospital practices, family meetings where staff “look to me for the solution because they don't have one,” and the fine line between helping and controlling: “Caring is very different than saving… without compassion we have nothing.” Later, the focus moves to the Cowichan Valley, where restorative justice coordinator Denise MacArthur explains how community-based responses to harm can give both responsible and affected parties a real voice.
Instead of court, charges, and silence, people sit “eye to eye and figure out how to fix it”, whether the issue is shoplifting, vandalism, harassment, or even drug trafficking. For anyone touched by addiction, mental illness, or the justice system, this episode offers grounded stories of struggle, small victories, and the push for more humane systems of care. It might leave you asking: where does caring stop and saving begin in your own life?
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