This post is dedicated to Amanda Todd (b. Nov. 27th, 1996 - d. Oct. 10th, 2012), a brave, beautiful young woman who took her own life this week after being subjected to the most brutal bullying, harassment and victimization imaginable by other young people in our community. This involved both cyber-bullying and real world actions and assault.
Amanda created a video to describe her suffering and she was crying out for help. There are many lessons to be learned in her video and her grieving mother, Carol Todd, has give permission for her video to be used to help other youth.
“I think the video should be shared and used as an anti-bullying tool.
That is what my daughter would have wanted,” Carol Todd, Amanda’s
mother, told The Vancouver Sun in a message on Twitter.
I hope that young people, parents and others watch this to see what kind of an environment too many of our young people are living with every day. As adults, we must do more to stop this and to intervene earlier for the victims/survivors for this brutality. Bystanders must stop being silent and tell someone if you know of someone being bullied.
Amanda Todd: My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm
On Sept. 7th, Amanda wrote:
I'm struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me
so deeply. I'm not doing this for attention. I'm doing this to be an
inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to
make pain go away, because I'd rather hurt myself then someone else.
Haters are haters but please don't hate, although im sure I'll get them.
I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones
future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I'm still
here aren't I?
On Wednesday, October 10th, Amanda was found deceased at home in what appears to be suicide. Her struggle is over and her soul is now at peace. I send blessings and sympathies to her parents and family.
********************************
As a psychiatric social worker, working with youth who are admitted to an acute psychiatric in-patient unit, I have found that almost every single one of my young clients has been subjected to intense, chronic and damaging bullying and harassment by peers in the real world and in cyberspace.
Many switch schools, or even leave school altogether. Families move to get them out the community where they remain targets. Young people have told me about the safety plans they have had to create to get back and forth from home to school to avoid those who lay in wait for them. From what my clients and parents tell me, schools do little, if anything, to assist them and they are left on their own to cope with the devastating impacts of bullying and harassment, which include escalating mental health symptoms (anxiety and depression), feeling worthless, rejected, hopeless and suicidal. They often cannot see a better future is ahead for them.
As adults, we simply cannot ask why bullying is so rampant with young people without holding the mirror up to ourselves. Bullying and harassment is an epidemic in many workplaces. It has become a structural mechanism to create control and domination in the workplace. This a much bigger topic to be tackled on another day.
In the immediate I want to provide some resources for young people, for parents and for others so people can access help.
This is a video interview with Dr. Jenna Shapka, an expert on cyber-bullying, who discusses why it is much more difficult for victims to escape their bullies.She also offers some advice for parents.
These are resources I've created and previously posted to Advocacy BC:
Warning signs of suicide
Friday, October 12, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Welfare: 1968 to 2011: Musings from a 34 Year Veteran on working the front lines of the Welfare Ministry
Introduction
Lelaine Muir attended the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia and spent her career working as a front line income assistance worker in the welfare ministry for 34 years. In that time she has seen dramatic changes in the philosophy, public policy, practice and administration of income assistance. Lelaine, now retired, kindly offered to write a piece for Advocacy BC on some of her experiences working with B.C.’s most vulnerable people.
Lelaine Muir attended the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia and spent her career working as a front line income assistance worker in the welfare ministry for 34 years. In that time she has seen dramatic changes in the philosophy, public policy, practice and administration of income assistance. Lelaine, now retired, kindly offered to write a piece for Advocacy BC on some of her experiences working with B.C.’s most vulnerable people.
Welfare: 1968 to 2011
Lelaine
Muir, September 18, 2012. Edited by Tracey Young, Advocacy BC.
I would
like to dedicate my musings on working the front lines of income assistance in
Vancouver’s urban core to all people on income assistance, past, present, and
future. Some of the finest people I have ever met have been on welfare. Income
assistance recipients are, in my opinion, the most open and honest about who and
what they are. For this I truly respect and admire them.
When I
started working, income assistance workers were considered helping professionals.
While I worked on the front lines of the welfare ministry I attended the School
of Social Work at the University of British Columbia (UBC). To me social work is an honourable profession. We make a
difference in people’s lives by working on increasing quality of life through
building self-esteem, and always moving the client forward towards financial
independence and healthier life styles. In welfare, we were the first line of
defence in recognizing and intervening in child neglect and abuse, addictions,
mental health, social disabilities, criminal activity, and immigration issues.
I have a
number of stories that have stayed with me over the years of my work and they
demonstrate some of the changes the welfare ministry has gone through in how we
treat clients. In the 1970’s while working at a
welfare office on Homer Street in Vancouver, a man entered our building in
distress. He appeared quite ill due alcohol abuse. He had defecated in his
clothing and he had been living in these clothes for days. Our conundrum was
who would transport him to a community social service agency that was able to offer
him assistance. We drew straws and I pulled the short one. My colleagues were
kind enough to cover the passenger seat of my two-seat sports car with
newspaper and helped get the client into my car. They also provided me with a
jar of Noxzema cream to hold under my nose to keep from retching. Holding the
jar in itself was a feat because I drove a standard forcing me to shift and
steer with one hand.
As soon
as we arrived at the community agency the gentleman was taken to a bathroom and
stripped of his clothing so the garments could be incinerated. The gentleman
was then placed in a large bathtub in a large room. The social worker with this
agency was bathing the gentleman when I was brought into the same room. I sat
on a stool in the furthest corner and completed the income assistance
application while the gentleman was bathed. The gentleman was found eligible
for income assistance and medical coverage all within the same day. The client
now had two support groups within hours of contact.
After thirty-four
years with welfare, I came to believe that, in many cases, people were failed
by their families and the adults in their lives when they were young. They were
failed by the school system, by their communities and social service agencies
and society, as a whole. As adults, they are punished because they grew up to
be dysfunctional people in need of support.
Over the
years, many clients have disclosed childhoods plagued by neglect, abuse,
torture, and trauma. Clients have told me about growing up in deep poverty,
alcoholism, drug addiction, family violence, suicide, and even having to eat
food off a dirty floor thrown there by the adults who were suppose to love and
care for them. I have had clients describe being chased out of their beds in
the middle of the night by a drunk, violent father carrying an axe and hiding
outside in winter in northern British Columbia in their pajamas, fearful of being
found.
In
welfare work our goals of service used to be about striving to provide people
with dignity and quality of life. This began to change and soon, it appeared as
though the welfare ministry, now called the Ministry of Social Development
(MSD), refused to acknowledge that a core segment of our society are unable to
function, and most likely never will and they require social assistance to
survive.
Around 2009
a senior manager came to my office to tell our team that we were no longer a
helping profession, we were now a business. When I inquired how we were to make
money off of the poor and disadvantaged the senior manager stated, “By
diverting costs.” In subsequent team meetings my colleagues and I began
brainstorming how diverting costs would take shape and how it would affect
delivery of service. Several times I tried to remind my teammates we worked
with human beings.
In the
spirit of this changing mandate I offered a few helpful suggestions. I
suggested we remove our name, address, and phone number from the blue pages of
the phone book so people wouldn’t be able to find us at all. I also recommended
we build a moat complete with drawbridge and pull up said drawbridge so people
couldn’t manage to make it into the offices. Following fortification we could
let it be known in the community that, if people could find us we may, and only may, help them.
“Diverting
costs” has taken a tremendous toll on the poorest in our province. One day an
administrative staff person approached me expressing concern about how one
particular client was being treated. I looked into the case and discovered a
twenty-year-old woman who was suffering from severe mental health issues. Her
father was in the background trying to support her bid for independence.
During
this process the young woman was approved for Persons with Disability (PWD) classification
by the Health Assistance Branch in Victoria. However the intake worker who had
completed the income assistance application at the local office had not found
her eligible for basic income assistance, almost four months after she made her
application. I approached my colleague with information of the mental health
issues and the approval for PWD. The worker said, “Well now I am going to ask
her to write out how she has survived for the last three months without our
help.”
I felt
it was inhumane to create further delays in helping this young woman, who was suffering
mental health issues, so I called the client. We tried to find a time the young
lady could come in to see me, but there were no available times. I asked the
young lady to come in on my lunch hour. When we met in my office, I explained
her eligibility for income assistance, and that I would make arrangements for
her to receive the funds she was eligible for. The young lady said, “I would
like to give you a hug, but I guess it’s not very professional?” I
replied, “I have had many a hug in my career.” She dropped her backpack, threw her
arms around me, and sobbed into my shoulder saying, “You have saved my life.”
I would
enjoy a good debate about BC’s welfare system, which, in my opinion, used to be
one of the finest. Clients were recognized for their individuality and were
treated with respect and humanity. Plans and goals were devised to meet the
individual’s needs and built on their strengths and capacities. Education,
training, and apprenticeship programs were preferred so clients could find
better paying jobs and more sustainable employment.
Another
client I remember was a single mother who was struggling with mental health
issues. She had a teenage daughter and they needed additional supports because
of her illness. Once the mother was found eligible for PWD, she brought me a picture
she had painted, with a card that read, “I am not much of an artist, but I
wanted to show my appreciation for all you did for us. You kept me hanging on.
And most importantly you treated me like a human being. Something no one else
has done.”
After working
under the new business model I started to apologize
to clients for the system and my inability to assist them. By now my employer had
made clear to me and my colleagues that care, dignity and compassion were no
longer relevant in the welfare ministry. I also found myself apologizing to
social workers with the Ministry of Children and Families, social workers with
the hospitals, staff at facilities, and service providers because services were
being withdrawn from the most vulnerable. Social workers were putting in hours
of work to arrange plans for people, only to find no one at the welfare offices
were available, or no-one knew the clients and could participate in case
conferences and assist in implementing plans that would support clients.
Another
situation that stayed with me was that of a single mother with two small
pre-school children who had approached the welfare office for additional
support. She explained she and her two children were hungry. They had no food
or funds due to bills being higher than usual and unexpected additional
expenses. The worker dealing with this woman told her to go and find free food. I could see that where once we were a helping
profession, now we were creating more stress in the lives of parents who were
already struggling. It is these kinds of conditions that trigger feelings of
anger, despair and hopelessness that can lead to acts of child abuse and/or neglect
when parents have hit walls in receiving help for them and their children.
In
the MSD business model of income assistance delivery, I found no understanding
of social or human issues. This business model does not understand, or care
about the social and health impacts of poverty on individuals’ and families. Nor does this model recognize mental health or
addictions, lack of education and literacy, lack of social skills, lack of day
care or the many ills that befall vulnerable human beings, because it is not
profitable to do so.
Welfare
came into existence because people needed help and there will always be people who
need help due to their own personal circumstances. From what I have experienced,
working in the welfare Ministry over the years, I now believe there is a segment
of society who wish the poor and vulnerable would just go away and die and
clean up after themselves so no one will ever know they were there in the first
place.
People on income assistance can be our
family, friends, or neighbours. Someday it could be you, or someone you
know. The
health of our communities is measured by how our most vulnerable are treated
and far too many in our communities have been deprived of what they need. I
remember a time when everyone was treated with respect and
dignity. With the political will of the B.C. government it can ensure that the
human rights of our most fragile citizens are values that are the foundation of
our welfare system.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
BC's Failing Child Welfare System: 11th Children & Families Minister in a Decade
What will Minister Cadieux Do for BC Kids in Care?
Katie Hyslop,
TheTyee, Sept. 19, 2012.
Excerpts:
Cadieux told The Tyee she is "excited" to work in a ministry that affects so many children and families in the province.
By appointing a less-experienced minister to the portfolio, social workers fear the worst is yet to come from Premier Clark's government.
"Any inexperienced minister would be a concern, because it is an extremely important ministry," says Carol Ross, chair of the BC Association of Social Workers' Child and Family Welfare Committee.
"It's about the welfare of children, and the impact on families across the province can be huge. So I'm hoping (Cadieux) has the wisdom to rely on her skillful staff and not attempt to make radical changes to the whole database problem."
MCFD in crisis: Young
For Tracey Young, it doesn't matter who holds the minister's position in MCFD. The social work advocate who quit MCFD in 2009 and now works as a psychiatric social worker says the Liberal government have been running the department like a business for over a decade, and the problems in the ministry will continue until they change their ways.
"The continuing problems of MCFD are very much related to the last decade of employee cuts, hiring freezes and ever-present re-organization and changed processes which have detracted from the core activities of MCFD, most importantly, a focus on protecting at-risk children and youth," she told the Tyee via email.
Young says MCFD is in an almost constant state of crisis, and that the current ICM issues are predictable because the ministry failed to consult its own employees before introducing the new system. She doesn't foresee appointing a new minister as bringing any change, positive or negative, to the situation.
"(Minister Cadieux) is neither responsible for the state of MCFD, nor will she likely have much to do with the crisis B.C.'s child welfare system will continue to experience until they make real improvements," she says.
"Making real change and improvements in the child welfare system of care is going to require the will of the B.C. government and a much more strategic action and investment plan for recruitment, health and safety and retention of frontline workers."
Friday, June 15, 2012
Changes to BC's Income Assistance/PWD system: Smoke & Mirrors & Few of the Improvements Really Needed
A lot of this is window dressing and hot air. What has been needed for a decade is to increase rates for basic income assistance and Persons with Disability (PWD), but it seems as though people can talk until they're blue in the face and this government doesn't get it, or care, that its most vulnerable citizens and their children are living in deep, dark poverty.
For instance, increasing the amount of funds people can have in trust, or what they can draw from trust accounts, is meaningless to the vast majority of people on welfare can barely afford shelter, food and the basics on the rates that have been frozen in ice for years while BC became one of the most expensive areas to live in anywhere. It is smoke and mirrors, and at it's worst, it is sophistry at the expense of those who need their government to make real and substantive improvements to their social circumstances.
The really devastating thing will be the change that increases of the "waiting period" for applying for income assistance from 3 to 5 weeks for people who are already in desperate circumstances. This is an inhumane and indefensible new policy that is going to have other social implications as people will inevitably turn to other means to support themselves and their children, such as crime and survival sex.
BC has led Canada in child poverty for 8 years in a row, which means a generation of children in our province have grown up with deprivation, in deep and unrelenting poverty. Statistics Canada data showed that the child poverty rate in BC rose from 14.5 percent in 2008 to 16.4 percent in 2009 using the agency’s Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs) before tax as a measure of poverty.
In 2011 the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculated that poverty costs British Columbia $8.1 billion to $9.2 billion every year. The estimated cost of a poverty reduction plan would be $3 billion to $4 billion a year – or less than half of what we lose to poverty (Campaign 2000).
In spite of all of this hard data, advocacy from stakeholders and even the business community calling to support our most vulnerable people, the BC government still refuses to create and commit to a substantive poverty reduction plan for our province.
For instance, increasing the amount of funds people can have in trust, or what they can draw from trust accounts, is meaningless to the vast majority of people on welfare can barely afford shelter, food and the basics on the rates that have been frozen in ice for years while BC became one of the most expensive areas to live in anywhere. It is smoke and mirrors, and at it's worst, it is sophistry at the expense of those who need their government to make real and substantive improvements to their social circumstances.
The really devastating thing will be the change that increases of the "waiting period" for applying for income assistance from 3 to 5 weeks for people who are already in desperate circumstances. This is an inhumane and indefensible new policy that is going to have other social implications as people will inevitably turn to other means to support themselves and their children, such as crime and survival sex.
BC has led Canada in child poverty for 8 years in a row, which means a generation of children in our province have grown up with deprivation, in deep and unrelenting poverty. Statistics Canada data showed that the child poverty rate in BC rose from 14.5 percent in 2008 to 16.4 percent in 2009 using the agency’s Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs) before tax as a measure of poverty.
In 2011 the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculated that poverty costs British Columbia $8.1 billion to $9.2 billion every year. The estimated cost of a poverty reduction plan would be $3 billion to $4 billion a year – or less than half of what we lose to poverty (Campaign 2000).
In spite of all of this hard data, advocacy from stakeholders and even the business community calling to support our most vulnerable people, the BC government still refuses to create and commit to a substantive poverty reduction plan for our province.
Highlights & Lowlights of the Changes to Income Assistance & Persons with
Disability status with Ministry of Social Development:
Announced on June 11th and will come into force later this year.
- No increase in rates for any category.
- The three week waiting "work search" period for proceeding with an income assistance application has been extended to five weeks.
- Clients with an immediate need for food, shelter or urgent medical attention will receive hardship assistance while still being required to undergo a three-week (for returning clients) or five-week (for new clients) work search.
- BC will be restoring earnings exemptions for all welfare recipients. Earnings exemptions are the rules that allow people on social assistance to earn a little money and keep it (on top of one’s welfare benefits).
- People on income assistance in the “expected to work” category will be able to earn and keep $200 per month.
- Earnings exemptions for people with disabilities (those in the PWD category of social assistance) will now rise from $500 to $800 per month with an annual total yearly exemption of $9,600.
- PWD folks will now be able to calculate and claim their earnings exemptions on an annualized basis, rather than on a monthly basis.
- Replacement of the Emergency Needs Assessment with the Immediate Needs Assessment
- The welfare time limit rule that stated people could only collect for 2 out of 5 years has been eliminated and will be replaced with intensified work-search requirements.
- Increasing the school startup supplement so that families now receive $100 for every child aged 5-11, and $175 for every child 12 and over.
- Providing access to dental services for children of families on hardship so parents can take their children in for regular dental checkups.
- Exempting income tax refunds so individuals and families on income assistance will be able to keep their full income tax refund.
- A single person can now retain assets, including cash, up to $2,000.
- For single disability assistance clients, their asset limit, including cash, is increasing to $5,000.
- Expected to Work clients will be able to keep a car valued up to $10,000.
- Effective spring 2013, mandatory income tax filing to ensure individuals and families are getting all the tax credits to which they are entitled.
- Parents without status who are fleeing abuse and who cannot leave the country with their children can receive assistance while they work with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to resolve their legal status.
- A couple who are both collecting disability assistance can earn up to $1,600 per month without impacting their benefits.
- People on disability assistance can now invest up to $200,000 - double the previous amount - in a non-discretionary trust account. This is the same amount that individuals can keep in their Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP).
- Individuals will be able to access up to $8,000 per year from their trust account for any other cost related to promoting independence - nearly double the previous annual allowance - and make their own choices about how best to use these funds.
- In April the Ministry of Social Development opened 85 centres in communities throughout the province to deliver the new Employment Program of B.C.
A full list of changes can be found here on the BC Government page
Some analysis and advocacy about changes and continuing needs:
BC Coalition of Persons with Disability: The Facts – PWD Rates in
B.C.
New BC welfare rules: some positive steps forward (and a couple steps back)
Policy Note, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (BC office)
First Call - BC CAMPAIGN 2000 - 2011 CHILD POVERTY REPORT CARD
Pay Now, or Pay Later: Kids N' Crime 2: Economic Aspects of the Development and Prevention of Criminality Among Children & Youth
Report by the Vancouver Board of Trade and Justice Institute of BC, 2010.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Mental Health in BC: Statistics, Information & How to Get Help
As a social worker who works with children, youth and adults the issue of mental health and wellness is close to my heart. Early identification, assessment and treatment are the keys to helping people escape worse problems and deteriorating mental health. Untreated mental health does not usually get better without intervention and the earlier the better.
A big part of finding help is openly acknowledging something is happening with a loved one, finding out what resources are available and how to access help. Here is more information that may assist you, or others.
There is reason to have hope, most people who experience mental health challenges can recover and lead healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives with support and treatment.
Statistics & Stories
*****
Suicide rates among Canadian girls rising
Vancouver Sun, April 2, 2012.
A big part of finding help is openly acknowledging something is happening with a loved one, finding out what resources are available and how to access help. Here is more information that may assist you, or others.
There is reason to have hope, most people who experience mental health challenges can recover and lead healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives with support and treatment.
Statistics & Stories
- 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a mental health problem this year1.
- 18% of adolescents (aged 15-24) report having a mental illness or substance abuse problem2.
- About 26% of employees suffer from depression3
- 1.6 Canadians are not diagnosed
- 70% of mental health problems begin in childhood or adolescence
- 87% who die by suicide had a diagnosable mental illness
*****
Suicide rates among Canadian girls rising
Vancouver Sun, April 2, 2012.
Suicide rates for girls aged 10 to 14 increased 50 per cent, from 0.6 per
100,000 in 1980, to 0.9 per 100,000 in 2008. And among girls aged 15 to 19, the
rate nearly doubled — from 3.7 to 6.2 per 100,000 during the same period.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death — after unintentional injuries such as car crashes — among young Canadians aged 10 to 19; in 2008, there were 233 suicides among 10- to 19-year olds, accounting for 20.4 per cent of all deaths for that age group.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death — after unintentional injuries such as car crashes — among young Canadians aged 10 to 19; in 2008, there were 233 suicides among 10- to 19-year olds, accounting for 20.4 per cent of all deaths for that age group.
Georgia Straight, April 10, 2012
***************************************Screening for Mental Health concerns
UBC researcher offers a simple step to identify anxiety in children:
Awareness can prevent later problems in life such as depression, drinking or smoking
“Is your child more shy, anxious or worried than other children his or her age?”
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Margaret Trudeau speaks about living with Bipolar Disorder
Margaret Trudeau: no regrets about having bipolar disorder, she says in Vancouver interview
Vancouver Sun Digital, March 11, 2012.
Margaret Trudeau has no regrets about having bipolar disorder. Although it’s led to multiple hospitalizations and strained relationships, she says it’s also been a boon to her life journey. In a radio show interview which airs March 12th (part one) and 19th (part two), Trudeau will discuss the effects – good and bad – of having bipolar.From what I can glean from the advance snippet of the Trudeau segment I’ve been offered, she is characteristically candid during the in-studio interview on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio program, Beautiful Minds. Show host Richard J. Dalton asks Trudeau this rather unconventional question: ”If you look at all the ways having bipolar disorder has affected your life, if you could go back, would you choose not to have bipolar disorder?”
Trudeau replies: “No, no, no, no, no, because I’ve had such a joyful life. I’ve had such an exciting life. I’ve had so many rich, rich beautiful things happen to me in my life because I do have energy, and I do reach out and I stretch my eyes. And I’ve always asked the questions, and I’ve always had a sense of adventure. I go too far. Pierre used to say to me … I exaggerate, but that’s what my emotions were — so high, so enthusiastic, so sad. I think that I’ve had a zest for life, and I think it’s been a gift. And in some ways, my bipolar, it’s also been a terrible thing untreated because I — I’ve damaged so much and so many relationships and hurt so many opportunities I could have had because of the illness. And that’s what I’d like to prevent other people from doing….
“Accept it early. Accept it right away when you don’t feel yourself. Get some help. Talk to someone. Even the act of talking might be the thing that will keep you from falling deeper and deeper into a depression.”
Since her admission to the psychiatric ward at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital several years ago, Trudeau has found her groove as a mental health advocate, willing to share her own struggles so others trying to cope won’t feel so stigmatized. She’s been brutally honest in her books, public appearances and in interviews. In her chat with Dalton, she mentions she’s working on yet another new book, a follow up to her best-selling memoir, Changing My Mind:
I have found in my path in the last 10 years an awful lot of happiness. The next book I hope is going to be, again, stories, but this time about how to make really good choices to be happy. I think we can choose to be happy in our lives. We can choose to wake up and grumble all day and be bitter and angry and judge others and find satisfaction in others doing bad instead of good. Or we can we wake up with optimism and love and say ‘Just what is this beautiful day going to bring me?’”
Many people, including friends and family members, will provide anecdotes for Trudeau’s new book. She’s begun compiling them and hopes to publish next year.
The Beautiful Minds Radio show was conceived by Dalton a few years ago. Then he helped create it as part of a team of volunteer programmers, as a vehicle to enlighten the public and debunk stereotypes about those with mental health issues. C0-op Radio is an advertising-free station and one of the truly remarkable aspects of the Beautiful Minds show is that many of the programmers struggle with mental health issues themselves, including Dalton, who has dysthymia, a form of mild, chronic depression. His diverse group of colleagues on the show have depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
“Some programmers without mental illness manage to make it through life quite fine anyway,” Dalton says lightheartedly.
Dalton sat beside me when he worked as a reporter at The Vancouver Sun and his interviewing technique was one of the best I’ve ever observed. Now that he has a radio gig, everyone else can now hear it too. Tune into Beautiful Minds Radio, on Co-op Radio, 102.7 FM, the second and third Mondays of the month, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Vancouver, and via www.coopradio.org.
The show’s website is really worth exploring because you can listen to archived shows. Find it here: www.beautifulmindsradio.org.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Social Workers Acknowledged in the BC Legislature
Private Member Statement by MLA Claire Trevena
Hansard Debates, Nov. 14, 2011.
C. Trevena: When we talk about front-line
workers, perhaps none are quite so front line as social workers. These are the
people in our communities each day trying to make life a little better for
individuals and for families. These are the people who have to deal with some of
the aspects of life that many feel are impossible. Daily they are working with
families who may be struggling with children and youth who are facing
hardship.
Without even thinking about it, we as a society expect that they'll
be there to help or to pick up the pieces. Without knowing the system, many
people expect that there are social workers, active and busy, where now they
have been replaced by call centre operators.
The social workers work with young and old, with the sick, with the
healthy. Their services are not driven by income, although it is too often the
poorest in society who need them the most.
Social workers have the horrible job of apprehending children, taking
them away from their families for the child's safety. They have the job of
working with teens who are trying to establish themselves independently. They're
there for people with mental illness. They are the people who try to assist
people to pick up the pieces. But far too often, they are themselves lost in the
system.
You might find, Madam Speaker, that it is strange to describe these
people — these professionals who work according to a professional code of
ethics, who have professional standards of practice — as lost. But I do choose
my words carefully. They are lost because their work, while absolutely necessary
for our society and for our communities, goes unnoticed by too many in
management. They are lost because their voices are often not being heard, sadly,
until it is too late.
Social workers deal with fragile lives, many fragile lives, and their
workload is extraordinary and very troubling. I am the critic for Children and
Families, so I'll confine my remarks largely to the work reflected by that
ministry, not the workloads of the social workers who are working with seniors
or within the health care system, although they have very valuable work that
they do too. But I raise this today in my private members' statement because I
find it very troubling that the average caseload for a social worker who is
working with children and youth with special needs is 150. That's 150 children
and young people.
I've talked to some social workers whose caseload is 400. There are
365 days a year. There are weekends, and social workers are entitled to time
off. There is no way that they could see every person, every young person on
their caseload. Even with 150 — the average — it'd be impossible to visit
everyone, let alone keep on top of what the concerns and problems are for each
single child and young person.
Not every single child or youth on a social worker's caseload is in
need of active intervention. Many have strong supportive families and other
networks, but caseloads such as these do not allow social workers to assess the
problems, to make an honest and fair judgment of those needs. Children and youth
with special needs…. Special needs is not a designation given lightly. Those
children need significant help to survive our very complex
world.
For instance, having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is not enough,
unless there are other proven developmental disabilities. Physical disabilities
have to be severe, and if they need significant help, so do their families. The
social worker is supposed to be there to help them to navigate the system. But
how can they, if there are 149 other children and young people also making
demands?
I do not exaggerate when I say that this is a crisis waiting to
happen. For all the goodwill in the world, for all the ethical practice and
professional standards and simple hard work, no individual can keep up with a
caseload that is the average for social workers in B.C. That means that a child
or children are likely to fall through the cracks.
It happened recently when a young girl with Down syndrome was left
alone with her dead mother. The social worker caseload was cited as a
contributing factor. That should have been a wake-up call, but the conversations
I've had with social workers have come after that incident, and they say that
their caseload is simply unmanageable. When it's raised with management, they
are told that they are in line with the rest of the
province.
There appears to be, however, no real sense of what a social worker
caseload is within the management hierarchy. I've tried to find out how busy
they are through official lines, and it's the sort of thing you'd expect to be
tracked — that a management system would know what their staff is doing, what
they're facing on an aggregate and on a daily basis. Several months after my
request, I'm still waiting for an answer.
Of course, one would expect the numbers to vary depending on the
different areas being dealt with — for instance, child protection, literally
looking after the safety of kids. You'd think that those numbers would be kept
down. Compared to the numbers dealing with children and youth with special
needs, they are low, but they're still, in many instances, quite frighteningly
high.
One person I talked to had a caseload of 50 families. These are 50
families in distress, who are in need of intervention. Another social worker
said that things in her office only changed when there was a child death. This
isn't a way to manage social services. It's not the way to manage child welfare.
I think it's quite terrifying to think that the only way change will happen is
for a child to die, but it seems that this is the sorry answer that we
have.
In child and youth mental health, the situation is similar. For child
and youth, death in these instances is sadly too often
suicide.
[1020]
About a year ago I raised concerns in my constituency of North Island
where there was a wait-list of 60 who needed child and youth mental health
assistance. It's a scary number. That was started to be tackled, but now the
pressure on the social workers has become so intense that there are now only two
workers to deal with a caseload meant for six.
I repeat that we do have a crisis waiting to happen. It's a
preventable crisis.
Social services is about prevention as well as trying to fix
problems, as well as about intervention. At the very core of prevention, the
front-line workers, the people who can make that prevention happen, are facing
huge pressures. Shortcuts are being made, and we need to see ways that we can
tackle this to ensure that a crisis doesn't occur.
When a death occurs, we deal with that. We prevent that, and we see
what we can do to prevent that crisis and make sure that the next stage doesn't
happen.
In a report published last year by the Federation of B.C. Youth in Care Networks, it asked young people who are and who have been in care — so
they've had a lot of dealings with social workers — to describe some of the
problems in achieving permanency. Permanency is obviously a goal that is trying
to be achieved for young people in care — that there is a permanent connection
there.
One of the answers that these young people came up with who have been
dealing with this is that social worker caseloads are too big. That's causing
problems for young people who are in care to achieve that permanency. They are
finding that social workers simply do not have the time to deal with their
specific personal needs, and that's a huge sadness.
A better resource, Madam Speaker, is our people. We can and should
invest in them at all levels. We should be making that investment in our social
workers too.
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