Mental Illness and Violence

Do we need more funding for mental health services in this world?  YES.

Does access to early identification and early intervention programs need to be improved?  YES.

Does having a mental illness mean a person will become violent?  NO.

Does a violent act necessarily indicate that the perpetrator had a mental illness?  NO.  

Does speculating in the media about a person's mental health help anything?  NO.  

All it does is create fear and increase the stigma around people with mental health issues.  This is the opposite of what needs to happen to get people help and care, and does nothing to protect victims of potential future incidents.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, it will be important to try to unlock the motives of the perpetrator, and discuss how this tragedy may have been prevented.  This will be an important part of the healing process for that community.  But since the gunman is gone, we will never really know the answers.  I hope that all this focus on the availability of mental health services might result in some positive actions.  But as with the lag in changes to gun control despite many mass killings in North America in the past few years, I have sincere doubts that this will happen.

What do you think about the assumptions and discussions about mental health in the news right now?

Things to Come

Meeting with a long time client yesterday, she asked me if I was leaving.  No, what gave you that idea?  She said that just before her last worker left (there was a transition in the agency) she had a dream predicting it.  Apparently she had a dream that I was now going somewhere else too.  Could this be a sign that my never-ending job search may soon produce an opportunity?  Hmm....

I'm also looking forward to seeing what the Mental Health Commision of Canada comes up with for it's mental health strategy.  The MHCC has a new chair whose vision for a Partners for Mental Health Coalition sounds interesting.  Currently, Canada is the only G-8 country without a national mental health strategy.

Tony, We Never Knew You

I would like to take this opportunity to say ‘good-bye’ to Tony. I never knew him personally, but I’d kind of hoped I might run into him someday if I was in his neighbourhood. I’ve profiled his blog here before, Homeless Man Speaks.


Tony died on Tuesday. Pictures of memorials to him are on his blog, and there was an article in the Toronto Star today about him.

Tony added a great perspective to all the social issue and Toronto blogs out there. He sent humour and reflection straight from the street. I hope he’s rockin’ some new pants out there in the universe.

Conned?

Well, in case you hadn’t heard yet it’s election time in Canada. Inevitably, election talk comes up with clients. I’m consistently surprised by the number of my clients who profess to support the Conservative party. Everything I’ve ever learned tells me that the Tory’s do the least for the issues that I think of as relevant to my clients, ie., failing to create the promised National Housing Strategy, cancelling Universal Child Care, “tough on crime” policies.

Still, I’m glad when anyone is engaged enough to vote. Hey, maybe I’ve been too brainwashed by the socialist, left-wing nuts (I’ve been a bleeding heart all my life) who seem to abound in social services to ever see what the appeal might be.

Of course, I put on my best non-partisan face during these discussions. Despite how much strain that may put on my face (it hurts!) Maybe I should just ask...what they like about the party, that is...just out of curiosity's sake. Yeah, I think I might be able to get away with that.

I can’t stop thinking about this since one woman told me today that she is considering volunteering for the Harper campaign. Even though she has declared this a “Seinfeld election”.

Go figure.

IWD 2011

Exactly one year ago I posted Happy International Women's Day with the comment that "our work is never done."  I like this phrase because it seems to speak to both the (often) intense expectations placed on individual women in their daily lives, as well as the larger social work of feminism, specifically ending sexism.

I love the rant below, and although I've been unable to determine it's original source, it can easily be found all over the internet.  Check out the links, I think they show some of the great work women are doing, and how much more we have to go.

*****

Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.

Celebrate the Small Stuff

It's really easy to get bogged down by negativity and frustration in this line of work.  Sometimes you just can't help but feel that recovery is impossibly slow, and "the system" is nothing but a big nasty mess serving only to keep people down.  It doesn't help when all over the news there are stories of families who lock their mother suffering with dementia in the garage, and Community Housing Corporations with big spending problems.

This is why it is so important to celebrate the successes.  Even the small stuff. 

Yesterday a client of mine officially received a Regional rent subsidy on her apartment (not from the troubled TCHC).  This is the first client I have even been working with that I have seen come to the top of the list!  She had been waiting for 14 years.  Despite all the paperwork (which this client in particular has zero patience for) she was very excited, as was I. 

Next week we're going to Roll up the Rim to celebrate.

Mental Health in the News

The Ontario Medical Association is set to present a new ad campaign, and have already released a list of “key health priorities” in advance of the provincial election later this year.

The summary of the list contains a couple of mentions to mental health care specifically. The OMA points out that people with mental illness tend to have complex health needs, and require health services more often, however only 1 out of 3 gets the care they need. They also highlight service gaps for young people and the negative effects this has on families. The ad campaign is said to focus heavily on mental health issues.

After having posted the other day about the Toronto mayor’s anti-homeless attitude, I heard statements on the radio that afternoon from Ontario’s Minister of Health Deb Matthews, commenting on the need for more community and supportive housing to address homelessness and mental health issues in the province. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard. I’ve searched and searched, and can’t find any links or articles about this. She has discussed these issues in the past however, and has a good track record of linking poverty and health issues.

Speculation continues as to the mental health status of Richard Kachkar, the man accused of killing police officer Ryan Russel by running him down with a stolen snowplow. While this story and ones such as the Arizona shooting seem to have led to some discussions about preventative mental health care and assessing risk of violence, I fear they are sometimes drowned out by the fascination of spectacle and political rhetoric. It’s especially disappointing in both cases to hear such frequent use of terms like “psycho” “crazy” “nutbar” etc. as though those offensive labels somehow explain why a person would commit these types of crimes.

The CBC radio program The Current has been running a great series on mental health. It is available to listen to online, or as a podcast.

I can't believe I made it to...

Seriously.  I really didn't know if I would stick to it with this blog long enough, but I'm glad I have.  I still find it cathartic and enjoyable to post into the great nether-world of the web my daily notions and mutterings to an audience of whomever happens to stumble across it.  That's good enough for me! 

I thought that to mark this special occasion, some good news was in order.  Edmond Place in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto will be having an open house this week.  This remarkable housing project was completed in only three years due to community collaboration and support from the municipal government.  The project is named for Edmond Yu, a man with paranoid schizophrenia who lived in the building when it was a derelict rooming house in the 1990's.  He was evicted, and was later shot and killed by police when he caused a disturbance on a city bus.  The building suffered a fire in 1998 leaving many more homeless. 

I sincerly believe that supporting people with mental illness to stay safely housed can help to avoid such tragedies.  Of course there are other benefits as well - Saving money to the health care system, safer neighbourhoods, community and dignity for the people living there.

I look forward to seeing more projects like this.

Breaking News

Yesterday on my lunch break, I decided to go to my old credit union to close an account. It was an old savings account with a couple hundred bucks sitting in it, that had been inactive for a couple years. The credit union is a little out of the way (part of the reason I stopped going there) so I had been putting this task off for some time.

They’d had some major renovations since I was there last, and had sleek new counters and fancy leather couches. They had also installed some of those clear markers of 21st century affluence, flat screen TVs. These days of course, we can watch TV everywhere from the queue in the coffee shop, to the self-serve gas pump. Much like all those other places, these screens (the one in particular that I could see while waiting for the teller to process my information) displayed a combination of ads for the credit union and their products, and “news headlines” from an online source.

My eyes invariably fell for this trap, and wandered over to the screen as I waited at the counter. I read “Martin Streek, the Toronto DJ respected for his knowledge of the alternative rock scene, has been found dead in his Toronto home.” Hmm. I thought that guy died a while ago. Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong person.
“Prime Minister Steven Harper should not have accepted communion at Romeo Leblanc’s state funeral.” Now I know that didn’t just happen. Several other “news items” popped up, confirming my suspicion – these headlines are over a year old! I looked them up when I got back to the office – yup, we’re talking July 8, 2009! Was I the only one seeing this?

Ah, technology: the way of the future. Needless to say, I was happy to walk out the door with my cash in hand, enjoying having the last laugh on this financial institution.

I take it back.

I’ve changed my mind.

Quote of the day for August 31 goes to the pharmacist I called yesterday:
Me: Um, hi, I’m calling to see if some medications could be made ready for me to pick up.Pharmacist: What’s your name?Me: They’re not for me, they’re for my client Mr. Lotsofmeds.Pharmacist (presumably looking up Mr. Lotsofmeds refills): He’s got some good ones here, are you sure you don’t want them?
Maybe I was in poor humour, but it seems to me that pharmacist making jokes about giving away serious meds to random people should kinda be like making a joke about a bomb when you’re in an airport.  Don’t even go there!
And all this as it’s all over the news that Ontario has the highest rates of Oxycontin addiction in Canada, one of the highest rates of abuse in the world! 
A place to live, a place to grow, Ontari-ari-ari-o!(sorry, anyone who wasn’t in an Ontario public school in the latter half of the 20th century might not get that song reference.  Consider yourselves lucky!)

The Whole Story

Ontario is having municipal elections this year. I read this article this morning about one of the leading candidates in Toronto, Rob Ford. While I’m not sure who I’m going cast my vote for yet, I can’t say I’m a big fan of Ford. His general platform seems to be of the ‘cut taxes, cut services’ variety, and to be frank, he seems like a real blowhard. Not exactly my style.

I bring this up because I think the article does a good job highlighting some of the challenges that come up time and again when trying to fund social programs. We know (or most people in social services know anyway) that things like poverty, addiction and homelessness are difficult issues to address. Positive change will only come from systemic changes in supports, programs, and people’s attitudes.

It may be very easy for Ford to rail against thousands of dollars being spent on cigarettes and “to give free wine to homeless people” but it is short sighted, and it definitely doesn’t tell the whole story. He gives a line similar to what we hear from those who oppose things like harm reduction, safe injection sites and the special diet allowance (an issue which Ford has also had his say on, and really made a mess)

I’m reminded of many stories, but one in particular of a woman I helped support when I was working on a homeless outreach program. She had been chronically homeless, had schizophrenia, diabetes, and crack addiction. Naturally, she had a long back story that I won’t go into here. After she stabilized somewhat during a lengthy shelter stay, we were able to find her suitable housing. The trick was making sure she got her injection of medication every two weeks so she stayed well enough to maintain that housing. The only way our nurse could guarantee to see her every two weeks was to bring her a coffee and a pack of cigarettes. Now surely this was cheaper than paying for her to be in a shelter, hospital, or detox clinic all the time? Surely this helped her to live a better quality of life!

I really wish some people would take the time to look at the whole picture.

G-20

So, needless to say, even though I’ve been looking for a job closer to downtown for the past two years, I’m glad to be nowhere near the inner city this week.
I haven’t seen the fence, but I hear it’s big.

As I was discussing with some friends the other day, I don’t really know how to feel about the whole thing.

Back in 2002 when the G7 met in Kananaskis, Alberta, and 2001 when the Summit of the Americas was held in Quebec City, I was involved in a lot of activism and many people I knew attended protests at those events (or as near as the “designated protest zone” was allowed). We were anti-globalization and opposed fair-trade. The issues seemed clear, and we wanted specific alternatives to what the summit members were proposing.

Now, I don’t really know what summit leaders will be talking about. The more I read the news, the more confused I get. If, as Harper says “the discussion should be less about new agreements than accountability for existing ones” couldn’t this have been done on the phone?

Initially, I was frustrated that the news media seemed to be focusing on logistics and risk of violence when talking about protestors and seemingly not paying any attention to the reason the protestors are actually there. But I wonder now if it’s because there is no one good reason the protestors are there.

I’m sure many are well intentioned. I’m sure their issues are important. But when everyone is there yelling hundreds of different and unrelated slogans, I fear the message will get lost.

Am I disillusioned and out of touch? I do still think that public protest and peaceful civil disobedience has its place and can be an effective tool for change. I just don’t see it happening this time.

Given all this, there are only two things I am sure of: 1) $1.2 billion is waaaay too much and so not worth it and 2) this weekend, I will be anywhere but downtown.

The World Cares About Homelessness

As with most major events of its kind, when Canada hosted the Olympics in Vancouver a few months ago, there was much skepticism about the benefits of the event to the city. The population was divided between those excited to be on the world stage, and those who felt strongly that resources would be better put towards dealing with the highest HIV rate in North America, a growing homeless population, and other social issues in the city.

While I for one really do like to believe that these events can offer a chance for a positive legacy in a city, I was appalled but not totally shocked when I read this article about the “affordable housing units” that are now up for rent in Vancouver. They were constructed as part of the Olympic Village development plan, and were promised to be turned into badly needed “social housing” for the city.

Please tell me how teachers, paramedics, police, and public sector workers are being discriminated against by landlords, or facing chronic rates of homelessness? Why on earth would these professionals be the target population for any “social housing” project? And can even they afford the $1600 rent (for only 640 sq. ft.)!!!!!!!

Canada has been "working on" a national housing strategy to end homelessness for 17 years now. Is this as far as we've come?

In related news, street children in South Africa are being forcibly moved to remote areas prior to the World Cup tournament.

Welfare Goes Plastic

An interesting idea

Manitoba looks at debit cards for welfare recipients

It seems to me that the greatest advantage would be for the people who currently lose up to 25% of their cheque in fees to MoneyMart and the like.

bad news/good news

the bad: my computer was down and out for FOUR WHOLE DAYS, so i am way behind - in posting, and in actual work!

the good: i finally won something when i rolled up the rim today - a free coffee! woo-hoo!