By Kendall Worth!
On Friday March 24th 2023 I had the opportunity to have a sit down with this first voice person who I will call Jenni. We do not use any information that identifies welfare recipients identifying the location of part-time employment, volunteer work, or school. All of that is to protect them from experiencing stigma and to protect them from repercussions.
Jenni has been on income assistance on and off since her 20’s or 30’s and has been fighting to better herself but keep experiencing set backs. She told me that she has had times in her life when friendships have ended and been accused of over-stepping boundaries in a friendship. She questions at this point in life “I am only 7 years from accessing old age pension pension and GIS. … I do not even know what the passage of bill c22 is going to do for me anymore. I feel my health has gone down hill resulting from me battling the system as long as I did.
Prior to us meeting on Friday March 24th we crossed paths on a bus one evening and that was the first time I ran into Jenni anywhere in the community for a year or longer. This experience illustrates a problem -- when two first voice people live in the same neighbourhood, but do not see each other, and when people cannot provide a phone number or E-mail address where they can be reached, social isolation results. When we crossed paths she told me that she saw my BLOG and wanted to give me her story. When she revealed “I do not have an E-mail address or a phone number I can provide you with” we picked a location, a date and time for us to meet. I worried she might not show up, but she actually did.
Jenni has a multitude of issues she experienced in her life that made her want to explain her story. As you read through her story you will notice:
At the present time she is on Income Assistance which is the second time in life she had to apply for Income assistance.
In addition to falling through the gaps at Community Services, she also fell through the cracks of the mental health system in Nova Scotia.
She is 58 years old and she asks “ why bother trying to better myself at this point in life when I gone though every loop-hole and got nowhere?”
She once had a good paying job when she had to leave because of mental health issues.
The following describes her experiences with Community Services
She is currently 58 years old and lived her life having dealings both with the mental health system and community services. She described her self as being in her early 30’s when she started having mental health break-downs. She feels strongly that not receiving appropriate/successful treatment through the mental health system is why she ended up on welfare. She has been on welfare a few times – in 2009, and back in 1977. She was cut off of assistance in 2006, because her father passed away and she was left money following her father’s passing. She was kicked off the system because of the amount of the inheritance she received; her caseworker at the time deemed her to have enough money to live on without needing welfare. So Community Services kicked her off the system, and after all the money was spent she had to re-apply for assistance in 2009.
At the beginning of 2013 she got accepted into Metro Regional Housing Authority and her rent has been 30% of her income ever since. She is thankful that entry into Metro Housing happened when it did, otherwise she would be at risk of becoming homeless over these past few years. These days she receives the full 950.00 Standard Household, Rate and paying 30% of her income due to living in a rent controlled building. 30% of $950.00 is 285.00 which sounds like very little, however power is not included in her rent. She pays $100 a month on her Nova Scotia Power Bill = 385.00 for rent and power. Then with inflation behaving out of control these days there is still not a lot left for food, personal hygiene products, and in her case she get no extra for telephone or special diet. She has a pay as you go plan for a cell phone. She pays $20 a month for her plan and it only gives so many minutes per month. Once these minutes run out she is more then half a month with no way to be contacted.
She has provided medical documentation three times to apply for special diet and telephone allowance, but so far is always denied, even while going through proper channels and using the appeals process.
At this point in the interview I asked her this question:
Q – So Jenni you brought up, while giving me the details of your story, that you had a good paying job when you were in your late teens, early 20’s, can you us what happened then?
A – "Kendall I have always known right from when I was kid that I have a learning disability -- Dyslexia. They also say I had ADHD in my teenage years. When I got older I found that I was having social issues getting along with my co-workers and started having mental health break-downs at work. During my 10 years of working, my employer gave me chance after chance while I was seeing a psychiatrists and seeing another counsellor about my mental health issues. Eventually my co-workers decided they no longer felt comfortable with me around, and I was let go. The job had a lot of interaction with the public and things just got too overwhelming for me."
Now to describe her experience with the mental health system:
After losing her job, her psychiatrist referred her for an adult version of mental health assessments that were done on her as a child. After doing their assessment, they came up with 4 different possible diagnoses. “They recommended Connections, but Connections made the decision not to accept me as a client. Eventually, the mental health system accused me of harassment for trying to get into programs they said I was not qualified for...”
“Further to all of this I have people in my life who believe I am faking my issues; that I do not have depression and anxiety, because I could not get accepted into Connections and I am not taking medication for depression and anxiety. Kendall, I should point out the specific people who believe I am faking it, are not people I know through going to places like Souls Harbour, or mental health professionals. The specific people who believe I am faking my depression and anxiety are family members, and friends who I have not spoken to over the past several years. These same people are people who believe in the welfare stigma about me.”
Then she said to me: “Kendall, when I saw everything you have ever written on your BLOG about Social Prescriptions (now called Fighting Social Isolation) and Social Prescribing (social isolation) it is my hope that something like an organization to address this will someday will get started in Halifax. it makes me think back when I was my 30’s/40’s how this type of organization would have helped me.
Q – Considering that a program to fight social isolation is something that could have helped you back when you in your 30’s/40’s can you tell me about the social isolation you have always lived life with?
She answered this question by saying – “Kendall, every time I read an article on your blog the first thought that comes to my mind is you advocating for a solution for people who have problems/issues with socializing. I live the experience of Social Isolation and know it is not good for your mental health. Here in Nova Scotia our system encourages Income Assistance recipients with mental health issues to believe that social isolation is OK. Having friends and social contacts in life should be a right."
Anyway I will end this story by saying I believe 58 years is not too late to better your-self. All we can hope for is that Jenni can find the right path in life.
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