By Kendall Worth
Thanksgiving of course is all about being thankful for what we have. And Christmas is the time for celebrating the meaning of Joy and Happiness.
But to be honest, for the tens of thousands of Nova Scotians on Income Assistance (IA) who live in poverty, there has not been much to celebrate or be thankful for in 2025. IA rates and government policies condemn us to a life in permanent poverty, with a constant risk of ending up homeless and on the streets. Ongoing inflation eats away at the small money we do have, and the housing market continues to be dominated by sky-rocketing rents and unmanageable power costs. As a result, our physical and mental health continues to suffer, putting ever more stress on us and a health system already in crisis.
As I have written in earlier BLOGs, these pressures inevitably push people into greater social isolation, to the point of some begin to claim that they have become “introverts”. In response, I point out that there is a BIG difference between people who are introverts by nature, - and those who are forced into social isolation by their economic circumstances.
What is even worse about Christmas, is that it is so much more than a single day or long weekend. Nowadays, the “Christmas Season” is effectively the whole month of December, even rolling into January and New Year’s. This makes the whole month one long challenge for those living in poverty or with mental health challenges, as I wrote in the Nova Scotia Advocate, some years back, here and here, explaining what I call the “December Blues”.
Listening to First Voices
This brings me to a conversation I recently had with some members of the IA community for which I advocate. These First Voices pointed out that even when marginalized people are fortunate enough to receive invitations to holiday celebrations with family or friends, they may well decline these invitations because of their anxieties about such social situations.
For example, during the month of December there are a handful of income assistance recipients in my community who receive invitations to Christmas gatherings from agencies with which they have volunteered or engaged over the year. But their past experiences of such events have not always been positive and many people end up declining these invites.
Let me share Bob’s story as an illustration. Bob is a First Voice who I have cited often in my writings. (Yes, as is my journalistic practice, “Bob” is a fake name.) Every Christmas, Bob is invited to a Christmas Gala in the community, - the invitation even says that he can bring a guest with him. Not having any close friends, in past years Bob went to the Gala alone. He just did not feel comfortable asking along a passing acquaintance from the line-up at the local food bank or the drop-in centre at the soup kitchen.
Once at the event, Bob discovered that he only knew 2 or 3 people, - the Executive Director and staff of the organization, who were busy engaging with their Board and the many guests. Bob did not personally feel comfortable engaging with strangers and as a result, he spent most of the evening sitting alone.
Now the irony of Bob’s life is that the people who know him best, - and who he would most like to invite to such a social occasion – are the professionals with whom he regularly engages with over the course of the year: his doctor, psychiatrist, social worker and counsellor. But of course those are all “professional” relationships. And while we might consider them part of the “care economy”, - that care is limited to office hours and visits, for reasons of professional boundaries and ethics.
A Possible Solution:
Bob of course is not alone in this predicament. So one possible solution that has been proposed is a non-professional peer support program. I first floated this idea in a BLOG about a year ago, in which I was reflecting on the challenges people living in poverty, and more particularly those with mental health challenges, have in establishing and maintaining friendships. I broached the topic again in a BLOG earlier this year, as I discussed the gaps in the social networks of people living on IA.
Peer support is an approach whereby individuals with shared experiences offer support to each other, and create an environment in which people can feel safe, understood and accepted. Non-Professional Type Peer Support is a special type of 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.
Critically, this type of peer support worker does not have to follow the same professional codes of conduct and ethics that govern health professionals such as doctors and social workers. So there is the scope for developing relationships that reach beyond the formal limitations of “office hours”.
But organizing such a network of peer support cannot be done informally. It requires strategic thinking, professional leadership and resources. This is why I believe that it is only through a formal social prescribing organization or program here in HRM that we will be able to break down the social isolation facing so many people in my community.
(All my BLOG discussions on Social Prescribing can be found here.)
Indeed, it does not take much creative thinking to imagine how a social prescription approach could help to transform the holiday experience for marginalized individuals in our community and break down the constraints of social isolation. An obvious place to start would be with a 24 / 7 drop in centre as I proposed years back.
Such a drop-in centre could quickly become a hub for community-based celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Such gatherings were once common in HRM, but now – likely due to issues of costs and voluntarism – the number of opportunities has shrunken drastically. (I am told that the only community meal this past Thanksgiving was organized by Souls Harbour.)
The bottom line is that we need a strategy to address the social isolation that faces so many in my community, - and which feels even more heavy over the holiday season. At this point, I see no other feasible solution than the establishment of a new, government supported and community-led Social Prescribing Organization.
Its purpose would be to bring the community together and break down all those barriers that keep us isolated. Not just for two hours on Thanksgiving Sunday, or for a couple of Christmas-related events!
We need to find longer-term, even permanent solutions for the problem of social isolation in our community. I strongly believe that pursuing the Social Prescription approach is our very best hope for the future.
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