What Would you Do if you went Crazy & there was No Help? Go Crazier, of Course!

What would you do if you saw your child talking back to voices and things that weren't there? If your spouse started becoming paranoid and telling you they were being spied on and people were following them? If your aging parent starts hoarding things and telling you stories about people knocking them down and hurting them? What if your loved one becomes a person you do not know right before your eyes?

These are all signs and symptoms of mental illness. And unchecked, they will get much, much worse, to the pain of everyone. It is a tragedy that every day in this province people, children, youth and adults, who have a legitimate mental health care needs often do not get the help and support they need before things go from bad to worse.

Mental health and addiction services in BC are being decimated, the old death by a thousands cuts method of "austerity," to the neoCon crowd. The problem is that it's all adding up to one HUGE MISTAKE. For everyone.

• People with mental illness need multi-disciplinary and timely care and help.
• They need assessment. They need treatment. People sometimes need medications. And many need case management.
  
• People also often need counselling to help them deal with the often painful realities of living with a serious mental illness - the stigma, the marginalization, the difficulty accessing affordable housing and adequate incomes if they are on disability.
• Sometimes they need hospitalization to stabilize and to stop themselves from harming themselves, or others. Not everyone. But some.
• They need affordable housing, a continuum - from supportive to independent.
• Family members need help and support too. Information, knowledge and to be considered part of the care team of the individual.
• People with mental illness need and deserve dignity, compassion, human rights and social justice.
  

I have heard the stories of those who tried to get their loved ones help to prevent tragedy from occurring. Watching a train wreck in action where they are shouting but no-one is listening, or helping as the loved one yells for someone to help and care. Nobody should have to go through that, the individual who needs care or the family and friends. Mental health care is a human right.

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Mental Health Has to Beg for Leftovers
Jody Paterson, Special to Times Colonist July 2, 2010

Alan Campbell couldn't believe the kind of care and support his wife received after being diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago.

The speedy treatment. The kind words. The follow-up calls and offers of support. It was an amazing experience, says Campbell -- and all the more striking when compared to the level of care his own clients typically see.

Campbell has spent the last 34 years working in B.C.'s mental-health system, most recently as director of mental health and addictions for the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

I'm sure he would have liked to have been finishing off his career this week reflecting on the tremendous gains made around mental-health care in his time. That's certainly been the case for breast cancer and for many other major health concerns that we've tackled with fervour in the last three decades.

Alas, Campbell retired Wednesday from a field that is very nearly as underfunded, misunderstood and stigmatized as it was when he got into it in 1976. Had his wife been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia instead of breast cancer, her family's journey through a fractured and overwhelmed mental-health system would have been very, very different from the experience they had at the tender hands of the B.C. Cancer Agency.

Why is that? Why does one disease get the resources it needs to do things exactly right, and another have to beg for leftovers at the back of the line?

Mental illness affects one in five people on Vancouver Island, 20 per cent, yet its share of health-care spending is a mere eight per cent.

In B.C. overall, spending on mental health and addictions accounts for just six per cent of the health budget.

"We haven't figured out how to get behind mental health as a country," says Campbell. "It's not just a problem here. In other regions, other provinces, the same dynamic exists. When we compare ourselves to other countries, we don't look good."

Campbell's final months at VIHA can't have been fun, what with the outrage building in the local psychiatric community over the loss of even more mental-health services.

In recent weeks, a doctor with the Schizophrenia Affective Disorders Clinic, Dr. Adam Gunn, resigned over the cuts. Dr. Anthony Barale has closed his outpatient service at Victoria General Hospital for people with brain injuries, saying he can't support a system that's failing patients and their families.

Dr. Andre Masters noted those resignations in a letter to the editor last month, and says more are likely coming. VIHA's Department of Psychiatry passed a motion last fall condemning everything about the way budget deliberations were handled at VIHA.

Yes, there's an urgent need for more spending on mental-health services, says Campbell. But when his department takes that message forward, the answer is usually "no," he adds.

"For every one of the five years I've been doing this job, we've put forward strong, well-reasoned cases for more funding," he says of his department. "The only time we were successful was in getting money for the Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness. My understanding is that our requests are given real consideration, but they just don't fare well in the end."

Nor does it go well when VIHA starts moving money around on the Island, taking funding away from places like Victoria and Nanaimo in order to provide more services in places like Port Hardy and Duncan. Mental-health services may be insufficient in Greater Victoria, but they're downright dismal elsewhere on the Island, says Campbell.

The economy will eventually improve, of course, and brighter days will dawn for many of the health, education and social services under the knife right now.

But that won't get to the fundamental problem plaguing mental-health services, which is that they are buried at the bottom of the priority list for health spending even in the best of economic times.

Once upon a time, cancer treatment was poorly funded and misunderstood as well. But brilliant minds as far back as 1938 saw a way to address that problem, and the foundations of what would eventually become the B.C. Cancer Agency were put in place.

Its mandate and practices are everything that health care should be: Consistent and thorough; well-resourced; research-based; thoughtful. It's a made-in-B.C. blueprint for doing things differently around mental health. So is the province's new

10-year mental-health plan, if it's able to become something more than just words on paper.

What can you do in the meantime?

Write B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon (kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.ca)

Health Canada Minister Leona Aglukkaq (aglukkaq.l@parl.gc.ca)

Tell them that mental-health care matters. Governments won't change unless we make them.

patersoncommunications@gmail.com

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Underground Foster Care: Over 10,000 Grandparent Households Raising Grandchildren in BC

Grandparents struggle to raise grandkids

Many struggle financially and emotionally. Does anybody care?

BY Barb Whittington,

Special to Times Colonist

June 23, 2010

Across B.C., more than 10,000 households with children are headed by grandparents. Since the Canadian census started tracking the number of households headed by grandparents, the numbers have risen significantly.

Who are these extended families who care for more children in B.C. than there are kids in foster care?

Here's a glimpse into two such households.

Dianne, 55, lives in a community up-Island. Her daughter suffers from mental illness and often cannot get the help she needs.

During a time when she was doing OK, she had twin girls. Soon, she wasn't doing well and became more and more distant from family and friends.

One evening, Grandma Dianne received a phone call from a ministry worker who said something like: "Can you take your grandkids or should they go into foster care? Likely if they go into care and your daughter still is unwell we would move toward adoption by a healthy family."

Dianne said yes, although she knew it would likely mean quitting work and having to move from her adult-only building. "They didn't even bring any clothes or a crib or a car seat for me," she recalls.

But the thought of the girls not being with family was something she couldn't consider.

Since that phone call five years ago, there have been many struggles, financial and emotional. The girls are now seven and doing better in school and the nightmares are easing.

Dianne went through legal aid and, at the urging of the ministry, applied for legal guardianship of the girls. She is not eligible for any help through the newly announced Extended Family Program because she has guardianship.

What would the situation be if the children had gone into foster care that evening?

From my past experience as a child protection social worker and my present experience as a registered counsellor and researcher, the children would not have fared as well. They could have been in a number of foster homes, might even have been split up, and in all likelihood they would have suffered emotionally from the lack of permanence and birth family in their wee lives.

Financially and emotionally, the costs are high.

Another grandparent couple (most are single grandmothers, most living below the poverty line) I would like you to meet are Johan and Fay.

Their son tried to raise his son Adam for a number of years after his wife committed suicide. Following a work-related injury, the father started using prescribed pain medication and now has a full-blown drug addiction.

Grandparents Johan, 70, and Fay, 68, live on a pension income. Following many frightening episodes with their son, they refused to let Adam, then 12, return to his dad. Adam said he was afraid of some of his dad's friends and worried when his dad went to sleep and he couldn't waken him. That reminds him of his mom's death.

There was one worker they had who really talked to Adam. Soon she was gone and now the family thinks that 'flying below the radar' might be best: "Adam doesn't do well with change and we are worried if we ask for any help that representative lady will see us as bad because I was once charged with assault trying to help my son."

Adam needs some school help from a tutor because of learning disabilities and he'd like to join cadets but both are beyond their budget. Grandma Fay says, "Someone might help, but we won't beg."

The Representative for Children and Youth's office says all families receiving payments need to be re-screened.

The children's ministry says there might be some new help for some grandparents but it would be reviewed every six months and you can't be a guardian. Do these ideas make sense?

While they argue, grandparents taking on the raising of their grandchildren need to be celebrated and supported.

The support shouldn't be temporary and you shouldn't be excluded if you followed ministry "orders" and went to court to get guardianship so your grandchildren would be safe and secure.

Adam and the little grandgirls know their grandparents care about them -- but who else does?

Barb Whittington is a professor in the University of Victoria school of social work, editor of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Legal Guide (2009) and a grandmother in training.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

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From Parent Support Services Society of BC

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Support Circles and Resources
GRG Support Circles are weekly to monthly support and information meetings for grandparents and other relatives who are the primary caregivers of grandchildren /nieces and nephews.Learn More

"Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Legal Guide" and Resource Book for Grandparents Publications

The GRG Pamphlet can be downloaded here - GRG. Legal Issues and Resources: A Brief BC Introduction (PDF)

The GRG Guide can be downloaded here - GRG: A Legal Guide (PDF)

The GRG Resource Booklet can be downloaded here - GRG: A Resource Booklet (PDF)

Lives are Lost When Systems are Cut: Mental health in BC

Failure of System Spirals into Family Tragedy
Jack Knox, Times Colonist, June 16 2010

Excerpts:

Her parents desperately tried to get her help, but there was always a barrier, a box that couldn't be ticked, to prevent her from getting into a program or facility. "There was always something that didn't fit," George says. Most of the time, the system would spit her back out, so it fell to her parents to pick up the pieces on their own.

Her parents' pleas that she needed to be in a psychiatric hospital with ongoing treatment fell on deaf ears. Laura lost 100 pounds.

On April 7, she went to court, where the court-appointed psychiatrist suggested federal time -- two years plus -- so that she could get better mental-health treatment not available at the provincial system. The judge agreed.

A week later, on April 19, 2009, Laura Schellenberg finally gave up. She hanged herself in the family home. She was 34 years old.

"The judicial and mental-health systems don't converse," says Alice. "They don't know what to do with these people," says George. "It is no use throwing good money after bad if the system is dysfunctional."

More of the story

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My comments:

It would be helpful if people really understood the broad strokes of what is happening in the mental health and addictions areas, as well the criminal justice system (not to mention income assistance, housing, health care...). Things are being taken apart, brick by brick, what do we think happens when this is how governments "work" these days.

300 individuals in Victoria used to have MH case management and treating psychiatrists. With the stroke of a pen, all of those people lost that community MH care. Eric Martin Pavilion lost 10 beds in 2009. Beds have been slashed for the homeless in Victoria. As have community agencies.
This is happening around the province of BC.

FYI - Riverview Hospital has not entirely shut down but it is well along the way to it. Part of what individuals, families and communities are experiencing is people who desperately require adult tertiary psychiatric care are out on the streets and suffering terribly. One thing people can do is let your elected officials, both MLA's and MP's, know that MH & addictions funding is a priority for your communities and for people who need it.

This story illustrates the painful story of a woman who could not get the care she needed and her parents (any of us could be in their shoes as a relative) who slammed up against the walls that prevent better accessibility to MH care. When people don't get it, they do terrible, tragic things to themselves and others.
People with mental illness deserve to live with dignity, support and timely and responsive care just like any of us expect for our health.

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Mental Health Gaps Deadly for Too Many
Marilyn Erickson, Times Colonist, June 16, 2010

The recent tragic death of Justin Wendland should be a call to action for all levels of government, but in particular the Vancouver Island Health Authority, who sit at the table with the Health Ministry and have failed to convince them of the need for action.

As an addiction worker, too many times I've had clients released from psychiatric emergency while still struggling with suicidal or threatening thoughts and behaviour. In all cases they have gone on to commit violent acts or tragically taken their own lives, when a successful intervention, psychiatric care and lengthy stay may have prevented it.

Last week, a client was admitted twice and twice he was released the following day while still threatening harm to himself or others and struggling with his addictive behaviour. He was a danger to others in that state, and predictably attempted the following night to take his own life.

Admitted back to psych emerg and found certifiable, he was unable to obtain a bed and was again released in less than 24 hours with a prescription for medication but no followup co-ordinated care plan. It happens often and it is unconscionable and unacceptable!

Additional money for the underfunded, understaffed Archie Courtnall Centre at the Royal Jubilee Hospital is a priority, as is a 24/7 drop-in centre offering immediate care for the mentally ill and addicted, many whom we know are homeless and unable to cope without supports in place.

Along with affordable housing, we must have access to more immediate and longer treatment options, including at least 20 new crisis beds.

Recent cuts at VIHA eliminated beds at Eric Martin Pavilion just when we need them the most.

The problem needs to be funded and addressed immediately or we will have more senseless tragedies.

Marilyn Erickson

Victoria

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

You Wanted MCFD, Please Listen to Those Who are Trying to Help Fix It

Polak: 'I Wanted This Ministry'

Children and Family Minister Mary Polak says she's proud of her record and not looking to change posts any time soon.

By Katie Hyslop, May 25, 2010, TheTyee.ca

Mary Polak disputed that the Children and Family Development Ministry she heads is hard-pressed by budget cuts and slow to implement recommendations made by a four-year-old independent investigation into breakdowns in B.C.'s child welfare system.

Polak's wide-ranging defence of her ministry was delivered on May 13 after an article published in The Tyee quoted current and former frontline child protection social workers who said heavy workloads and strained resources made their jobs difficult to do adequately.

Polak also sought to clarify her government's dispute about sharing cabinet documents with Representative For Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. Her arguments (see sidebar) failed to sway the court, which, the day after Polak spoke with The Tyee, ruled against the BC Liberal government.

Numbers disputed

Polak said she wants frontline child protection workers to know she is fully supportive of their position in the "hardest job in government."

"It's important for me to be defending the work that our frontline people do everyday and make sure they understand that they do have a minister that supports them," she says.

Why then hasn't MCFD hired on more than 17 new frontline worker positions since 2001? And why isn't her ministry replacing workers who retire, quit, or go on leave? Because it's hard to do.

"This is not an easy job, and it takes a very special person to be able to do that job. So when we look at our rural and remote areas, we are doubly challenged because not only is the role challenging, but also it's challenging just to have people who've been to those areas," said Polak.

She added since the Liberals came to power, staffing levels in the North have gone from 55 per cent to 90 per cent -- despite being a rural area -- and the number of kids in care has dropped by 1,600 because of a focus on family mediation and conferences instead of taking children into care.

What about the high caseload of 35 active cases or more for child protection social workers? Polak says the average caseload is a constant 22.

That figure doesn't ring true to Tracey Young, who worked for the MCFD from 2000 to 2008 and was quoted in the previous Tyee article.

"Caseloads far exceed 22 in most areas of practice in MCFD. That might be some numbers for intake teams, which should be even lower as this is very high-crisis and high-need intervention work with families," Young told The Tyee in an email after hearing Polak's statements.

"It would have truly been a dream to have a caseload of 22 when I worked in MCFD, it was always around 30 cases, with emergency coverage of other workers caseloads as necessary."

Cuts or scratches?

While some reports, including the government's own Budget 2010 Fiscal Plan, say the MCFD budget is frozen until 2012/2013, Polak asserts this isn't so. In fact, the budget increased by $12 million last year, and by $9.5 million this year.

Some of the increases include an increased amount of money in contracts, grants, and payments to families, and Polak adds they avoided cuts to frontline services.

However, ministry operating costs, salaries and benefits have been cut since last year, and $5 million will also be cut from contract services -- which is only one per cent of their previous $825 million budget, but a budget that provides the bulk of outreach and prevention work in the ministry. Another $5 million will be redirected to aboriginal services from non-aboriginal services, as the majority of children in the system are First Nations.

Hands Tied: Child Protection Workers Talk About Working In, and Leaving, B.C.'s Child Welfare System, a report issued by Pivot Legal Society last year, counted 185 full-time equivalency positions cut by Polak's ministry in 2009. Polak said that number represents not frontline child protection workers, but administrative positions.

Yet those are the very positions that help ease a social worker's caseload, points out Young.

"When we had social work assistants, they were able to do particular aspects of the work that would take away some of the administrative burdens, such as doing referrals for things, setting up visits. But when you don't have that kind of support, then all of that is on you," said Young.

Recommendations completed?

Polak stands by her previous assertions that all 62 of the Hughes recommendations have been implemented -- with a few exceptions.

"Things that are no longer on the table [are], for example Aboriginal agencies, that we all know was something that fell apart because the First Nations were not willing to go forward with it," she says.

"Also there are other recommendations that are ongoing and will continue to be ongoing, such as quality assurance initiatives."

But Turpel-Lafond says that's not the case. The representative is currently in the process of producing a report on the status of the recommendations, which was due last year but delayed due to "similar issues" that led to the recent court order.

"I think I can just be very clear to say the work is not completed," says Turpel-Lafond.

Polak believes this disagreement is down to a difference of interpretation of implemented, and a lack of information on the representative's part.

"It's based on information that she was able to put together and we believe that she didn't consider much of the information we provided to her," says Polak.

Capped, not cancelled

Polak stressed that The Child in the Home of a Relative Program, which The Tyee reported had been scrapped, has only been capped. And she emphasized that the 4,400 children currently enrolled are not the responsibility of MCFD -- her ministry just pays for them.

"[They're under the ministry of] Housing and Social Development because it is an income assistance program, it's not a child welfare program," says Polak.

"We believe quite strongly, based on the evidence, that there are far greater needs represented in those cases than simply a financial need. So those folks have the opportunity if they wish to seek other supports from [MCFD] without jeopardizing their current status [with Housing]."

While families currently enrolled won't lose their place in the program, it's no longer available to new families, who will instead be enrolled in the new Extended Family Program.

Aboriginal plan late but coming

Polak acknowledged that her ministry is running late in framing a plan to better deal with child protection issues in Aboriginal communities. Though the Indigenous Child at the Centre Action Plan, slated to replace Aboriginal agencies, is a year behind schedule in finalizing the document, let alone implementation, Polak said she isn't worried.

She said she is more concerned with making changes that will stick, not ones that happen quickly -- an idea she takes from social workers she meets across the province.

And while Ministry turnover at the top level has been high, with three ministers since 2006, she said that stops with her.

"I know there's a reputation for ministers not wanting to be in this spot, but when the premier asked what I was interested in, I told him I wanted this ministry and I was very pleased when he decided to take me up on that," she said.

"[Former minister] Tom Christensen was a long serving minister, I hope I am."

Katie Hyslop is a reporter for Megaphone.

Representative for Children & Youth Wins in Court: What's the Truth about CIHR & the Extended Family Program

As well she should have won. This is an interesting case, it gives us a window into how legal games are played, how tax payer funds are used in the pursuit of certain failure to protect the government at the expense and cost of the public interest.

I thank the Representative for her forthright pursuit of her mandate and the best interests of BC's children & youth and the public good. I hope that the other "Independent" officers take a page from this book.

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Premier Gordon Campbell not above the Law, Watchdog Lawyer argues over release of Cabinet Documents
Lindsay Kines, May 14, 2010.Victoria Times Colonist.

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BC Children's Rep Wins Court Decision
CBC News. May 14 2010

Before initiating the lawsuit, the government had asked Turpel-Lafond to sign a protocol agreement that would have permitted her to view the documents, but gave the government control over their use.

The cabinet documents Turpel-Lafond sought were related to the government's Children in the Home of a Relative program.

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The Honourable Madam Justice S. Griffin's Legal Decision

In conclusion, I make the following orders:

1. A declaration that that the respondents the MCFD and Office of the Premier have failed to comply with their statutory duty under s. 10(3) of the RCYA to provide the petitioner with the Cabinet submission(s) associated with the CIHR program and its replacement by the Extended Family Program as announced by the MCFD on March 1, 2010 and as requested by the petitioner in her March 5, 2010 letter to the MCFD and in her April 22, 2010 letter to the Office of the Premier;

2. An order in the nature of mandamus compelling the personal respondents to direct the MCFD and the Office of the Premier to comply with the legal duty to provide to the petitioner the Cabinet submission(s) referred to in paragraph 1 forthwith.

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Documents must be turned over to childen's watchdog
Lindsay Kines, May 15, 2010. Victoria Times Colonist.

Open Letter: UBCIC Supports Representative for Children & Youth Petition to Access Cabinet Documents

Union of BC Indian Chiefs

May 11, 2010

Hon. Mary Polak
Ministry of Children and Family Development
PO Box 9057, STN PROV GOVT.
Victoria, BC, V8W 9E2

Dear Hon. Polak,

We are writing to express our shock, outrage, and complete opposition to proposed provincial legislation that would severely restrict the B.C. Representative for Children and Youth’s access to key cabinet documents, and thus restrict her ability to effectively advocate on behalf of extremely vulnerable children and youth.

The independent Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) position was created in 2006. A report on the brutal death of toddler Sherry Charlie prompted an internal review of the government, an inquest, and an inquiry. The work was headed by retired judge Ted Hughes, who recommended creation of the RCY position. Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond was appointed unanimously to the RCY position by all parties.

We understand that Turpel-Lafond’s petition will be heard before the Supreme Court Thursday, May 13th. You must prevent the proposed legislation that would censor the RCY’s access to critical cabinet documents. We urge you to work together with Turpel-Lafond in her position as RCY, rather than against her in, order to carry out your overlapping goals of caring for and protecting vulnerable children and youth.

We call on you to place the interests of vulnerable children first.

On behalf of the UNION OF BC INDIAN CHIEFS,

President Grand Chief Stewart Phillip
Vice-President Chief William Charlie
Secretary-Treasurer Chief Robert Chamberlin

Read the whole letter here.

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Government curtails child and youth rep's right to know

Andrew MacLeod. April 30, 2010. TheTyee.ca

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Information for the Uninformed
May 7, 2010, Public Eye Online.

On Wednesday, Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak accused the BC Association of Social Workers of being "uninformed and inaccurate." This, in response to a social workers' news release criticizing the government for introducing legislation that will ensure the children and youth representative doesn't have an unrestricted right to cabinet documents. But association member Tracey Young couldn't find any evidence in Ms. Polak's letter supporting that accusation. In an email sent on her own behalf to the minister, Ms. Young also expressed hope the representative's recent legal effort to force the release of those documents, would lead to a "greater understanding of the challenges that are impacting the disclosure of information from the BC government regarding child welfare and other related matters." The following is a complete copy of that email.

What is MCFD Trying to Hide?

BC Association of Social Workers
For Immediate Release

May 1, 2010

WHAT IS MCFD TRYING TO HIDE?

“The BC Liberals have worked over the past eight years to make government more open and accountable, and take decisive action towards real democratic reform.” - BC Liberals

Through the introduction of Bill 24-2006 the BC government has introduced amendments to the Representative for Children and Youth Act that will restrict the Representative in accessing cabinet documents which are necessary to monitor and assess how the BC government is meeting its mandate toward the children and youth of BC.

The fact that these legislative changes are retroactive to the creation of the Representative’s office, and were hidden within the bill which contained 200 amendments to miscellaneous laws, speaks to the profound lack of transparency, openness and accountability with which the BC government is operating. The introduction of these amendments can only be seen as attempts to undermine and diminish the legislative authority and power of the Representative in holding the BC government accountable for its action and inaction that contribute to the continuing and rapid deterioration of the child welfare and social service systems of care in BC.

There is enough evidence to demonstrate that MCFD is often failing to meet even its most basic legislative mandate – to protect children and youth. The attrition of frontline social workers continues unabated. The government has failed to act on previous recommendations of the Representative.

How are the interests of children, youth and families being served by creating a veil of secrecy around accessing information about how the leadership of MCFD is operating and what changes they are planning?

Whose interests are being served by cutting the Representative off at the knees in fulfilling the mandate of her office – assessing and reporting on how MCFD and other Ministries are fulfilling their legislated mandates toward the children and youth of BC?

It’s time for the leadership of MCFD to be reminded that their first and most important commitment is to serving the interests and needs of BC’s children and youth in the most accountable, transparent and ethical way. There is still time for the BC government to meet its own goal of building the best system of support in Canada for children with special needs and those who are at risk. BC’s children and youth deserve the absolute best that we have to offer.

For further information, contact: Tracey Young, MSW RSW, tyoung@catalystbc.ca

______________________________________________________

Linda Korbin, MSW RSW
Executive Director

BC ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS
402 1755 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V6J 4S5
t 604 730 9111 / 800 665 4747 (BC only) f 604 730 9112
lkorbin@bcasw.org
www.bcasw.org