This is a public health podcast miniseries produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). This Q+A podcast miniseries supports knowledge translation on current issues in shelters and public health, looking at how precarious housing, systemic barriers, and infectious diseases intersect, and exploring shelters as a public health setting.
The series expands upon NCCID’s Shelters and Public Health: A Winter Institute, by featuring interviews with experts on topics related to shelters, halfway houses, harm reduction and social determinants.
Episode 1 – Katharina Maier
July 2024 — In the 1st episode of our series, we speak with Dr. Katharina Maier, an Associate Professor at the University of Winnipeg who has published extensively on issues pertaining to prison violence, prison masculinities, prisoner re-entry, and halfway houses.
Katharina discusses the public health risks and barriers faced by clients of halfway houses and safe injection sites. She elaborates on public health risks for inmates who move from corrections to transitional housing and outlines a role for public health in mitigating precarious housing.
Episode 2 – Cheryl Forchuk
July 2024 — In the 2nd episode of our series, we speak with Dr. Cheryl Forchuk, a University Professor at Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing (Western University); and Scientist and Assistant Director at Lawson Health Research Institute.
Cheryl discusses the public health risks and barriers faced by clients of shelters and mental health facilities. She describes how the lived experiences of shelter clients can reveal significant gaps in public health responses, which can inform more effective collaborations and best-practices for shelters.
Episode 3 – Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff
August 2024 — In the 3rd episode of our series, we speak with Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff, an Emerita Professor at the University of Calgary, and a founder of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Canadian Homeless Research Network.
Jeannette describes the housing first program model, and how housing programs can address gaps in health and social services for individuals without homes. She discusses the differences between rural and urban homelessness, and how public health policies and programs can be responsive to the unique needs of rural communities.
Episode 4 – Zulma Rueda
June 2025 — The fourth episode in our mini series explores houselessness as an aspect of the HIV syndemic in Manitoba. Dr. Zulma Rueda discusses how sex and gender shape vulnerability to houselessness, substance use, and mental health conditions in those newly diagnosed with HIV.
Dr. Rueda is a Canada Research Chair in Sexually Transmitted Infection – Resistance and Control and leads the Exposome Lab at the University of Manitoba.
Episode 5 – Leslie Tutty
June 2025 — The fifth episode in our mini series explores the relationship between shelter use and gender-based violence in Canada. Dr. Leslie Tutty discusses the role of public health in preventing gender-based and intimate partner violence, and the needs of women, children and gender-diverse individuals who are leaving violence.
Dr. Tutty is a Professor Emerita with the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, and the past Academic Director of RESOLVE Alberta, a member of RESOLVE , one of Canada’s Alliance of research centres on violence against women and children. She is also a Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary.