Guerrilla Social Work

First, a couple of things we need to agree on;

• Power is a construct. It can only exist if both parties agree to the power. In other words for someone to have power over you, you have to let them.
• Social workers have to pay close attention to power. There is a power imbalance that we need to be conscious of, even more so when working with those who are marginalized.
• A degree of power and authority is needed in order for society to work.
• Power and authority can be exercised in a respectful manor.

Now to my point. I’ve had some interactions recently with authority figures that have left a really bad taste in my mouth. (I know, I know, I should quit licking authority.) I cross paths with people working in positions other than police, EMS, transit cops, rent a cops etc, and sadly I find more and more that people in these positions have let the myth of their own authority go to their heads. I can appreciate that they have difficult and sometime dangerous jobs, but why is that an excuse to dehumanize the people they are dealing with? I realize that when people work with those on the fringes of society it can be very easy to be consumed by all the negative things. I can understand that it is very hard to consistently deal with people who are drunk, breaking petty laws and generally making there job difficult. What I am not able to understand is why it is okay to dehumanize and completely disrespect the people you serve just because they annoy you, or worse, do things that cause you to do you job?

Thoughts?

Subsidized housing does not work.

Discuss

In April the AISH program is set to raise the amount that someone is receiving form 1188.00$ to 1588.00$ This is great for people how have been living well below the poverty line for decades. (The same as those making minimum wage but they’re still well below that line, more on that later) 1188.00$ created a lot of challenges not the least of which was housing. It’s a challenge for the person to pay rents as high as 900.00$ on a one bedroom and it is a challenge for Social Workers and others working with people on AISH to help them find something affordable. Most of us go through the motions of applying for subsidized housing all of which have huge wait lists. We call our list of contacts, fish for potential solutions and hold are breath. While this is happening the person is either on the street or in the hospital (pdf). The cost of this is huge.

There are two realities here that we have to accept. One is old, there is not enough subsidized housing space. The second is new, people on AISH make enough money to afford (just) market rent in Calgary. Given the cost of keeping someone in hospital or for them to be on the street and now the client has the money, do we have an obligation to support them in finding market value housing? I realize that we are busy but is it reasonable to fill out an application and wait for a space that may never come?

I hear you, you’re saying “but Mr. Social Work, I don’t have time to do this, the client needs support, I don’t know how! You’re right and if you read back, no where did I say it would be easy. There are some clients that need support to be in the community and that’s a whole different conversation but there are a lot of client’s who simply need help finding an apartment and getting things set up.

My suggestion to you is to step up. You news to find a while to support or facilitate moving you clients into housing. Whether you work one to one to go through the ads and take the client to see and apply or you put on a workshop on unit or in the shelter. You can still have them apply for subsidized housing but you can’t stop there.

Have you ever had conversations with people who can’t seem to get past their beliefs about a situation? You hear things like, “we can’t do that” “they won’t let you” “They can’t afford it” I have to wonder if we believe things simply because they are the things we have always been told, when was the last time you challenge a long standing “truth”? How did it turn out?

Structural social work practice focuses on the structural or systemic cause of a person’s problems rather that on the person or their environment. In a course I took it was suggested that a structural focus was difficult in a generalist social worker’s daily practice. Do we focus on our client and what they can do now to improve the quality of their lives or do we focus on change the systems that is causing all of the grief. Although the goal of social work is to address both, there are only so many hours in the day and crisis crayons in the box.

We don’t recognize how much power we have to affect change. Or a better way to put it is we have a lot of power to prevent change. Every time we accept that something can’t be done or choose to not ask because we already know the answer we don’t take an opportunity to change things.

Example? Okay how bout this one. Housing. You’re a social worker on an inpatient unit in a hospital. You are doing discharge planning and this client will need a place to live. Let’s make it easy, they were living on their own before being admitted and the functional assessment has them reasonable independent. However they are on a fixed income of about 1188$ per month. (This is the amount paid to people on AISH in Alberta.) You know there is a 3000 person wait list for your city’s social housing program, the mental health housing program won’t take your client because they have used drugs or alcohol in the last 5 years and you know renting market value is too expensive.

Three myths. One, social housing wait list, yep, it’s pretty long. Have you done and application anyway? Did you call, is there any other programs run through them like rent supplements, or rapid exit that requires the application? The mental health housing, are you sure they won’t accept your client? Did you call and try to get an intake meeting?

Admittedly, these myths exist because they have been reinforced so many times. Maybe you won’t have a lot of luck but at least you can make a call, find out how it really is and maybe start building the relationships that can lead to change.

But that’s more like the structural social work but you really do need to focus on your client right now, discharge is approaching fast.

This leaves market value housing, this myth we can challenge maybe even bust. Yes, market value is expensive and your client is very low income, but so is anyone in Alberta working for minimum wage. Look at the options, a one bedroom apartment around 900$, a basement suite around 600$, a sketch below code basement “suite” around 600 to 700$ or shared accomidations for 400$ to 500$. Expensive but do able.

You might need to get out of your and your client’s way. Maybe they need some support in learning how to rent a place, Maybe the need a list of places to start or help getting a damage deposit. Either way they are getting discharged and what you offer them will decide whether or not they are housed or homeless.

Sesame Street has a new puppet. (no, not the happiest of all puppets) Follow the link if you want the story, it’s great that they are look at the realities of urban living, but that’s not the focus of this post.

This post is about the term “Food Insecurity“. When I first read the term I thought it was a joke. Maybe a politically correct way to say too poor to buy food. But it’s a real term, with a Wikipedia page and everything.

I asked another social worker what they thought when they heard the term. The thought long and hard and responded with, “well it implies that everything else is secure, like if you’re food insecure your hungry but can pay rent, buy clothing and have access to appropriate health care.

On the plus side Canada has not only identified what food security is, but what it isn’t.

I was all set to mock the crap out of this whole concept but even though it’s a vague and silly term, it really does define the problem and set some clear measures for a solution. I think it is really important that it not only focuses on availability for on nutrition. Many Calgary Charities like the Food Bank offer food hampers to those in need. Others offer meals on a regular basis. However, most of these meals and hampers include almost no nutrition. Access is less relevant if it is access to crap.

My office is in a shelter, and in the common area that is used be the residents of the floor have common kitchen someone always puts out buns, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, but always fast acting carbs. The theory my co-worker has is that you want the poor and hungry to have access to this kind of food. This way they scarf them down cause they’re hungry, then the have the energy to work for a short period of time. Then the have a sugar/fat crash and fall asleep before they realize they have just been exploited by a temp agency.

A capitalist society needs to keep it’s labour force hungry enough to compete for low wages, but fed enough to not rise up and rebel. I applaud Sesame Street for stepping up and teaching children that healthy food is a right.

With corporations lobbying hard to stop taxing bad food, stop labeling bad food and to misinform consumers, the more people need understand about nutrition and food. A good way to improve food security is to improve nutritional literacy.

Just like shopping at the Walmart down the street is not buying local, McDonalds extra value meal is not food security.

PS

To be fair you can get a somewhat healthy meal if you are willing to line up and sell your soul.

Selling your soul for a meal

I had a brief conversation with a gentleman in a shelter who had been released from prison a couple of days earlier. I can’t for the life of me remember how we got from “hi, how ya doin” to “when I left the jail they only gave me 3 pills of my anti depressant.” h had not been able to get prescription never mind figure out how to get it filled and paid for. It’s worth noting that suddenly stopping some medications can be very dangerous.

Let’s deconstruct this:

1. He is released from prison

2. He is given a few pills but no prescription.

3 he is expected to;

a. Find housing with little or no money or income.
b. Get a new prescription.
c. Find out how to pay for it.
d. Check in with his parole office.
e. Find a psychiatrist.
f. Stay out of trouble and of drugs and alcohol.

Did I miss anything?

I appreciate that we live in a “take care of your own self society” (no I don’t, I don’t appreciate that at all) but why is that we expect people who are already challenge to navigate systems and complete quests that are tougher than anything in the Legend of Zelda?

This system is set up to ensure this persons failure.

How do you fix this?