In Addition to Raising the Income Assistance Rates...

 In Addition to raising the Income Assistance Rates, A whole Other Unrelated Issue Needs to be tackled By Elected Officials!

By – Kendall Worth!

 

 

In my last two BLOG Posts on March 03, 2022 and on March 05, 2022 I talked strongly about the need for Raising the Income Assistance Rates and the need for addressing and resolving the rising homeless issues/population in HRM, and in Nova Scotia.

My March 5^th Blog also addresses an example of police harassment toward people living in poverty.

Police harassment, plus harassment from private security guards, has been a recurring issue for people living in poverty, especially those that have mental health issues, for days and years, long before Peoples Park got up and running, or shelters were removed.

This needs a solution. I have been advocating for years that something be done but people keep telling me it has not got better. “In addition to needing to see the Income Assistance rates Increase, we also want government to introduce legislation. That Bill should protect us from getting approached and spoken to by police, and private security guards, about our behaviour and physical actions, in public, because they have received complaints from people. Such behaviours include:

• Fidgeting in public

• Talking to themselves, in some cases out loud

• Big hand movements that make a person look like they are trying to start a fight with someone.

• Making no eye contact when spoken to

• Bad and unacceptable types of handshakes

• Giving mismatched verbal and nonverbal messages/communication

• Staring into space

• Failing to smile, or giving “the wrong type” of smile.

• Eye rolling

• Crossing arms defensively

• Evil-looking facial expressions

I just want to point out, that I have touched on this issue a lot, while reporting in the Nova Scotia Advocate https://nsadvocate.org/tag/fidgeting/. That linked article gives the history of my reporting on this issue.

Furthermore in two of my past BLOG Posts https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2021/12/when-people-are-both-income-assistance.html and https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2021/12/dont-call-911-on-inappropriate-body.html I also touch on this issue of people in poverty, with mental health issues, getting harassed by police and private security guards when all they are doing is “Just sitting or standing – Just minding their business - not causing trouble – and keeping to themselves”, basically giving the public no reason for them to complain or for police or security guards to approach them.

The income assistance recipients I have been in touch with recently are saying this needs to stop. They are being approached by people with no mental health training, who speak to them as if they think they have the skills of mental health professionals.

It is clear that both municipal and provincial governments who control police, have a role to play here. and, of course, some protocols that police follow, especially when making arrests, are mandated by the federal government. So the first question here is “Which level of government is responsible for telling police they have to stop behaving like they are Mental Health Professionals?”

Another question tht comes up: “When it comes to private security guards approaching persons with mental health issues, and then behaving like they are the mental health professionals ( who can diagnose and decide treatment) toward innocent people, the question is: “Can the private security company they work for, or the building management /administrator of the building they work in, or government, be responsible for telling private security guards (as in malls and public buildings) they have to stop behaving like they are the mental health professionals, toward the people I advocate for”?

So if the government was to introduce legislation, or building management want to instruct their people, with protocols, these would have to include:

• Police and private security being directed “especially when the Person is just sitting or standing where they are, minding their own business and NOT causing trouble but behaving in a way that someone thinks is abnormal behaviour” they must NOT take these complaints, from the public, seriously.

• Maybe HRM could look at sending half of their HRP force to university to study social work and or psychology, so they can be “mental health professionals”. Alternatively, the recent Defunding the Police: Defining the way forward, report from the Halifax “Board of the Police Commissioner’s Subcommittee to Define Defunding Police”, suggests something different. The sub-committee recommends: 15. Regional Council, in cooperation with the Police Board and the provincial government, to the extent necessary, should revise the Mental Health Mobile Crisis team model to ensure that mental health crisis calls are generally diverted to civilian-only teams. This model should also be explored for other social- or health-based emergency calls.

• Maybe private security companies could look at doing the same. After all, if the employers of police forces and private security guards are going to allow their employees to get away with behaving like they are the mental health professionals then maybe that type of training should be required for people to work in those professions. 

   

  
   

   This is an issue that needs to be addressed, and the government needs to address it because:

• When an income assistance recipient, with mental health issues, is approached by police or a security guard, , the person seeing them in uniform is immediately giving that person the message “That person is not a mental health professional”.

• The behaviour of police and private security, when addressing these complaints from the public, make the income assistance recipient (or sometimes people with middle class incomes but who have mental health issues, or are “on the spectrum” also are harassed) feel like they are being expected to share stuff they only feel comfortable revealing to  professionals, like psychiatrists or psychologists. For example, sharing their diagnosis and treatment – especially when the officer approaches them, asking questions like “Why are you fidgeting, staring at people walking by, or behaving like you are intoxicated, ( even though we understand you are not drinking at this time) but we need to speak to you about complaints from the public.”

• One income assistance recipient with mental health issues, who got approached by private security in a public building, was advised in a loud and blunt manor of the complaint they got from the public, about his behaviour being “abnormal”. This person stood his ground and told the two guards who approached him – “you speaking to me about this complaint is harassment, especially when I am just minding my own business and not causing trouble”. The security guards told him (while raising their voice a-bit louder) “The person was within their right to make the complaint and we are expected to approach you, and address this.”

The point I am trying to get at is that when people are approached by police or guards because they got a complaint from the public, they speak as if they are addressing a criminal matter, when these are NOT criminal matters! They are mental health matters, that the police criminalize. And when they try to approach as mental health matters, they ask questions assuming that they have the skills of a mental health professional – which they do not have!

So yes – it is time for Government to start addressing this issue!