Making the Right Social Connections can be the Cure

 

By Kendall Worth

 

 

For this post I interviewed Ron and KP (as usual the names they chose to use)to protect people from stigma directed to them because they went public with their story.

I advocate for whole community of people here in Halifax Nova Scotia who have no choice, and through no fault of their own, end up receiving income assistance.

Let me start off by reporting on the background these two individuals.

Ron Gets the  Standard Household Rate of $1005.00 a month plus the $40.00 Special Needs Telephone allowance, and the $318.00 Disability Supplement = $1363.00. His name has been on a waiting list for a rental subsidy for 3 years. His rent is $900 a month plus power so subtracting $900 from $1363.00 = $463.00. Then the $40.00 has to go directly on his cell phone Bill so after that he has $423.00 left per month to live on. His cell phone is $59.00 a month so $19.00 has to come out from the remainder. So $423.00 Subtract $19.00 = $404.00 a month for Nova Scotia Power payments, food and personal hygiene products. He would not disclose what he pays for power.

KP Gets the Standard Household Rate of $1005.00 a month plus $318.00 Plus a $300.00 rent subsidy,  and the $40.00 special needs telephone allowance  = $1663.00 a month. KP’s rent is $1000 a month. Subtracting that $1000.00 from $1663.00  = $663.00 then the $40.00 for the telephone has to go directly on her phone bill. Subtracting that $40.00 = $623.00 left over. Then her Nova Scotia Power per month is $90.00 so subtracting that $90.00 that = $533.00 a month. The $533 has to cover the cost of groceries, personal hygiene products, etc. By the time that is spent, there is nothing left. 

However it also turns out that Ron and KP both have something in common. 

As many of you regular readers already know, part of what I advocate for, through my BLOG,  is a solution for Social Isolation. 

For more on solutions to Social Connections see https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20connection.  

For more on the actual specific solutions see https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/mitigating%20social%20isolation. 

Ron and KP are part of the population in Halifax Nova Scotia, who use places places like Souls Harbour, Hope cottage and other drop-ins where people go,  not only for the free food, but also for socializing. As illustrated in this post getting out and socializing in Halifax is getting more and more expensive, these days,  even for employed people.

What Ron and KP have in common is they knew each other from back in their childhood and they rekindled their friendship just over a year ago. One day,  attending Souls Harbour, they crossed paths.  

When they discovered they were both socially isolated because other people in the lives (particularly from their childhood) believe that they are faking their invisible disabilities (Which happens as part of the Stigma people believe in about many welfare recipients) and what they have in common is understanding each others situations. These days people are getting diagnosed with autism in their 30’s and this is exactly what happened to KP. Ron has OCD and issues with social anxiety. 

Ron is currently working through getting diagnosed for other invisible disabilities. They both decided within this past year that they are both going to work together on their mental health. They have in common,  that they both feel like they are forced to be introverts because of their situation. 

Since re-kindling the friendship,  they been going to Souls Harbour a lot less often and they call this improvement. the reason?  Because they always found that,  socializing with others at Souls Harbour,  only made them even more depressed. The more depressed they got by socializing with others at Souls Harbour did nothing to help them keep their anxiety levels low.

Ron and KP are just twoout of several examples of things working out when people know or get to know, the right people.

Throughout my time advocating for the community of people living in poverty, I have heard stories of positive things happening to people by people they personally know being there for them as support. However the right people are people who do not believe in the stigma as I wrote about Here.

I also Reported on Stigma in days of writing for the Now Folded Nova Scotia Advocate. 

Sources tell me there are some working people out there who do not believe in the stigma but getting to know who these people are can be difficult. The "Right people" are also the people who understand each other like Ron and KP.

There is lots of evidence that shows that life can be difficult when you are on Income Assistance. Lets find Solutions!