Everyone needs a community of support, not just because a network of friends is something nice, - company with whom to share a walk or a coffee or movie. It can be so much more for vulnerable people such as those on Income Assistance or those living with health concerns and disabilities. For such people, a community of support can be central to safety and security.
I have written earlier about how building and maintaining friendships can be a challenge for many people living on Income Assistance. In this BLOG, I looked at the challenges faced by many IA recipients, who often end up self-describing themselves as “introverts”, when in many times they are simply isolated. In a different BLOG, I explored how social isolation could impact the health and well-being of IA recipients as the lack of friends may oblige someone to defer day surgery and can complicate post-surgery recovery, in terms of care and support. Similarly, just the obligation to provide an emergency next of kin can be an obstacle to many who are estranged from friends and family, as I wrote about in this 2018 article. And I have reported here on how some people in my community do not feel safe when alone in large crowds, so this obliges them to avoid community festivals and gatherings, even when these events are free of charge.
First Voices Share Experiences
I have recently had a series of conversations with people in my community who have been struggling with how social isolation diminishes their lives. As always, I will be using pseudonyms (“fake names”) when sharing these voices, for reasons that I have discussed many times before.
For the purpose of today’s BLOG, let’s call those I interviewed Kermit, Jason, Erin and Joanne. All four of them are on Income Assistance and have had to deal with various forms of social stigma, not least of all having people in their close families and personal lives who believe that they are on IA is simply because they are lazy and prefer to sit at home and do nothing. Their only social contacts are with people they meet at soup kitchens like Souls Harbour and Hope Cottage.
All four of these individuals receive the standard IA household rate amount of $1005. Two of them (Erin and Joanne) also receive the $318 Disability Supplement. All four agree that given the cost of living today, and most particularly the price of rent, all of them struggle to make financial ends meet. Just covering the basics of survival means that there is next to nothing left to live on.
Despite their estrangement from friends and family, all four do have people in their personal lives who openly express concern as to “How will we find out if anything happens to you?” This reminded me of my conversation with Bob, reported on here who shared that while he hears from his brother once a year, he has no contact with family otherwise.
This connects back to my reference above to Next of Kin contacts. For many IA recipients, their most reliable and regular contacts are with the professionals they engage with as service providers, such as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and counsellors. Despite the fact that the officially designated next of kin can do many important things (such as notifying people in event of hospitalization or death), it is not feasible to involve these professionals in decision-making that is deemed to be personal in nature.
With regards to the four individuals:
Kermit: is an IA recipient in his early 40s. He is on the wait list for a couple of needed surgeries, but he keeps putting them off because they are day surgeries and someone reliable (normally a close friend or family member) needs to be with him both at the hospital and afterwards. With no such friends or family, Kermit feels that his normal circle of contacts (people he meets at the food bank or soup kitchen) cannot be relied upon. So he defers the surgery, time and time again.
Jason: was an active, employed member of the community until his life was overturned by mental health issues. He too is in his early 40s and has been diagnosed with various invisible disabilities. He has struggled to build and maintain friendships, and has been told that he “oversteps boundaries” in relationships. Jason told me that my 2017 article on this issue resonated with his own experience. As a result, he now feels alone and socially isolated.
Erin: shared that she has struggled to maintain friendships ever since she was a child. She preferred not to share much about her past, but her current reality is that she feels vulnerable living in isolation and without even having a next of kin.
Joanne: expressed feelings very similar to all the above and felt that some sort of mechanism or solution was required to help people who are socially isolated to build and maintain the necessary support networks for friendships and more.
Over the past couple of years, I have been actively promoting such a mechanism in the form of a social prescribing organization or program. This concept came up in this latest round of conversations, with regards to how an organization or program could actually help people to establish new social contacts and make new friends and build support groups.
One strategy I have suggested in an earlier BLOG is that of a Non-Professional Type Peer Support Program, which could help to fill the gap between absent or estranged friends and family on one hand, - and health care professionals like doctors and social workers on the other. Such a program could also support IA recipients to step out of their comfort zones, expand their social networks and build their own communities of support.
My experience
however is that this can only ever happen through an established and funded
organization. We know the solution, - we just need to get started on
implementing it!
Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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