Sibling life is never just one role. It’s caretaker, advocate, friend, guardian...and it shifts with every season. We sit down with Dr. Linda Nguyen and sibling-advocate Samantha Bellefeuille to explore how those fluid roles come into focus when siblings lead the narrative and how digital storytelling can turn lived experience into lasting change in health care, research, and community programs.

Episode Key Messages

• How Sibling Youth Advisory Council (SibYAC) formed and works with siblings as partners
• Why digital storytelling beats repeated live retellings
• Ownership, consent, and compensation around lived experience
• Intimate screening choices and peer reflection
• Using stories to train clinicians and students
• Upcoming toolkit and workshop plans
• Patient's Voice Conference with Krystle Schofield

Other Links Mentioned

• Watch Sam’s digital story
• Read this episode's blog post
• Learn more about Linda's work
• Find out about Fostering Forever Friendships

About Our Guest

Linda Nguyen is an Azrieli Accelerator Assistant Professor in Youth, Sibling, and Community Engaged Research in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. She established the Sibling Youth Advisory Council (SibYAC) in 2018 during her doctoral studies and continues to partner with them in research. Her program of research includes co-creating programs and resources to support siblings, who are youth and young adults, and have a sibling with a disability and/or health condition.

Samantha Bellefeuille is a sibling partner with the Sibling Youth Advisory Council and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) who has a younger brother with CDKL5. She is the Executive Director and Founder of a day program for adults with exceptionalities called Fostering Forever Friendships, in Ottawa, Ontario.

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