By Kendall Worth!
Today I am writing about someone I will call Bonnie. To help you understand Bonnie’s story I suggest first reading this story about Lea.
When writing abut Lea, I mentioned: “Living her life without a good relationship with family, and having no friends or social contacts means she must put off a surgery that she is advised to get, but is also advised to have someone on hand to help her. She has been advised to get surgery, soon, for the last couple of years – but there are barriers, explained in all these articles. Having no one to help you get home from hospital or stay with you after surgery is an ongoing issue for people on social assistance, who have no family and few friends”
There are a multitude of issues that welfare recipients face day to day, beyond just being poor, that are frustrating. Lea and Bonnie both illustrate one of those issues.
Before moving any further with the actual story about Bonnie, I am letting you know, that after giving some serious thought to this, I have decided I am no longer going to write about the topic of the difficulties faced by welfare recipients, who need to the enter hospital for surgery.
Every time I have written about this topic, attacks came from readers who do not seem to know or understand the situations of the people I advocate for. Also, previously, my social media inbox filled up with arguments, but also with people offering to help. Health Care Professionals tell me that accompaniment is necessary after anaesthesia even if the patient feels awake and alert. It is not safe for the patient to go home alone because the effects of the anaesthesia can last 24 hours following surgery. But welfare recipients know that health professionals and others have incomes so much larger than $950/month they cannot understand a life that involves standing in lines at soup kitchens and food banks and using other drop-ins available to people living in poverty. It has been suggested to me that we could assemble a team of retired people to drive people home from hospital and stay with them, but not sure this is feasible.
Any subsequent blog post, on this topic, will have to be an open letter to the Minister of Health and Wellness, asking for a solution – perhaps recovery beds for 24 hours, with a watcher but no nursing staff?
Also – please know I delayed writing this post until I had a solution for Bonnie – so need need to offer help in this specific case.
Here’s the details of Bonnie’s story…
Bonnie gets the standard household rate of $950.00 then gets $54.00 for Special Diets plus the $40.00 Telephone allowance. She also receives a rent subsidy of $480.00
This $1452.00 may seem like a lot compared to the $950 standard household rate, however, she pays $1000 a month for rent for her one bedroom with heat, hot water, and power included. She is lucky because most landlords do not include power in the rent. Still $1452.00 Subtract $1000.00 for rent = $452.00. Then the $40.00 telephone has to go directly on her phone. = $412.00 left. Her Cellphone bill is $47.99 a month so subtract another $7.99 a month = $404.00 . That $7.99 a month is $7.99 a month she could use toward paying for groceries and essentials if Income Assistance covered the full amount of her phone bill. Then, of course $54.00 a month goes directly toward her high fibre, low fat diet, so subtracting that $54.00 = She has $350.01 left monthly for groceries, and personal hygiene products, Etc. $20.00 of that $350.01 goes to a once a month cab ride home from the grocery Store and pharmacy so that = $330.01 left a month. I should mention that her apartment is located on Larry Utech Drive that is -- in the middle of no-where -- which explains why she needs to take the cab ride. Once the remaining $330.01 is spent, there is next to nothing left to go out, or get a coffee, or to engage in any other social activity.
Her current worry is that she must go to hospital, for surgery, soon. In her case I was able to organize a solution for her to have that person, health care demands, to accompany her home in a cab, following surgery. She is safely looked after – so no need to message me with suggestions and offers of assistance. It turned out that I know someone who lives in her building. I was able to make an arrangement for them to meet, and that acquaintance got to know Bonnie and she accompanied Bonnie home from the hospital.
Bonnie is not in touch with her family and has no close friends so the surgery would have been cancelled if no one was able to accompany her. Other people have, in fact, had their surgery cancelled or postponed for this reason.
Let me repeat – I will not be writing about this topic again… recently the social worker at the North End Community Health Centre said that if I run into this again, that I can send (even non-patients) to them and they will try and assist.
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