Canadian Journalists Launch Groundbreaking Mental Health Peer Support Program

May 27, 2025 Tiana Squire 0 Comments 2 min read

TORONTO – A new nationwide initiative is aiming to address the growing mental health crisis in Canadian newsrooms. Today, journalists and media professionals across the country launched the Canadian News Industry Peer Support (CNIPS) program, a first-of-its-kind pilot supported by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) to combat stress, burnout, and trauma within the industry.

Twenty volunteers from across Canada have been trained to provide confidential peer-to-peer support for their colleagues, marking a significant milestone in the push for improved mental health resources in journalism. CNIPS is designed to offer newsroom workers — including freelancers, editors, producers, and photojournalists — a safe, empathetic space to talk through challenges with trained peers who understand the pressures of the job.

“Canadian journalists are experiencing unprecedented levels of pressure in their service of the public’s right to know,” said CAJ President Brent Jolly. “The peer support program will offer colleagues a way to reach out, contact helping peers, and get help to work out problems, talk confidentially, and heal.”

The official launch event for CNIPS will take place Friday, May 30 at 2 PM MT during the CAJ’s national conference in Calgary. The program’s first 20 trained peer supporters — with contact information available at caj.ca/peersupport — will serve journalists across the country, with a goal to expand to 100 trained volunteers by the end of 2026.

“There’s really nothing like a peer for understanding what you’re going through,” said Nasuna Stuart-Ulin, a Montreal-based freelance photojournalist and one of the program’s first volunteers. “Being able to talk to people who understand a shared context is really invaluable.”

The initiative draws inspiration from peer support models in other high-stress sectors, including law enforcement and emergency services. Dave Seglins, a CNIPS advisor and CBC/Radio-Canada journalist who helped establish a similar internal support network in 2023, said peer support is not only about well-being — it’s smart business.

“It helps to reduce absenteeism and conflict, and improves people’s happiness, productivity and creativity in a news industry that so often is focused on tragedy and suffering,” said Seglins.

CNIPS peer supporters are not mental health clinicians. They are newsroom veterans trained to listen, hold confidential conversations, and guide peers toward professional help when needed.

The CNIPS program is made possible through support from major players in the Canadian media landscape, including founding sponsors: