From Survival to the Stage

Last month,(Oct 2025) I experienced a moment I’m still holding close to my heart — a reminder of how far a person can come, even when the world once counted them out.

Over 20 years ago, I was in the deepest part of my substance use and survival. I was using every tool I had to stay alive — even when those tools looked messy, chaotic, or “unruly” to the outside world. During that time, Dr. Bill McEwan was one of the psychiatrists who cared for me in the DTES — part of an outreach team that truly met people where they were. Their compassion was instrumental in helping me access supports and begin the path toward the life I’m living today.

He saw me as a human being long before I was able to see that in myself.

Fast forward to today: I stood on stage presenting alongside Dr. McEwan at the 75th Annual Canadian Psychiatric Association Conference — speaking to the power of lived experience leadership, harm reduction, and peer-led approaches that save lives every day.

To say this was a full-circle moment doesn’t begin to cover it.

And here’s the piece that matters most to me now: wellness is not something done to people — it’s something nurtured with them. People deserve autonomy, dignity, and self-determination in their healing. We must trust people to lead their own wellness journeys, to make choices rooted in their realities, and to define success on their own terms. When we honour autonomy, we build systems that truly empower rather than control.

This is what happens when we invest in people.

When we see strengths instead of deficits.

When we create space for lived experience to lead.

When we protect the right to choose what healing looks like.

From survival to the stage.

From patient to partner.

From stigma to systems change.

Here’s to every person still in the dark right now: you are not done yet. There is a path forward — and you get to lead it.