Town Hall Meeting on Mental Health: The Task Force Report: There & not there(!) In 2013 Vancouver's mayor & the chief of police announced the formation of a Mental Health Task Force. It had good PR: “needed to address multiple levels of the marginalised population; included professionals, experts in health & law & order, social workers, service providers and even mental health consumers. The first meeting had about 40 of such people but weighted perhaps 8 to1 in favour of those with 'economic stakeholder' figuring in. More on this point as this article proceeds. From the perspective of all being paid to be part of this task force the models & initiatives centred on setting up differing streams of care, most along the prevailing, well-intended medical paradigm with isolation, delegating authority to bring the individuals categorised as Seriously Addicted & Mentally Ill (SAMI) into the system in a more direct, streamlined way and aggressive care teams to make it all work Now, what all this actually means is: Police are assumed to be capable of deciding if you are behaving in a manner that indicates a mental health problem. If you disagree with their reason for stopping and/or questioning you about anything.. if you appear upset or aggressive or overly anxious/nervous, or are pro-testing any tactic used against what you perceive to be your best interests by, say, a landlord or anyone part of the new 'gentry' (i.e. As in gentrification!) the police can apprehend you under Section 28 of some Mental Health Act. They can take you to a newly renovated section of St Paul's Hospital Emergency and have you kept for 48 hours as a mentally disordered person, dangerous to yourself or to others. There are now nine emergency psychiatric beds open in a forensic ward, meaning you can't leave if you've been admitted. Any interviews with psychiatrists (& maybe doctors & social workers too) are mandated to include a cop in the room at all times. Ostensibly this is all part of a new regimen to get your needs assessed and set up with supports - like having a nurse visit daily after discharge to inject you with doctor or court-ordered psychiatric drugs, to provide whatever treatment the professionals deem relevent. Step back now. Consider why this is happening: #1 reason for most of outside solutions imposed or brought to bear is the desire of those with vested interests. The members of the Downtown Eastside community are regarded as undesirable by the newly resident gentry. We cannot be met head-on with mass arrests or swept up through a military-style clearing-manoeveur. We cannot all be killed; we cannot all be evicted or made homeless and we cannot be shut up. Herb Varley related the strategy here as akin to that shown in the Art of War by Sun Tzu, where trying to defeat an enemy directly with a first&final blow isn't advisable. The tactic is to then 'cut at the corners.' In the models contained in the Task Force Report, the response to the new gentry's dissatisfaction with their neighbours & people met in daily life is to give power to the police & all those involved with dealing with us to brand us as crazy & force enough dope/medication on us to keep the most or even moderately egregious docile and out of sight. To scatter all the mentally ill, whether rightly or wrongly labeled as such, throughout the city, to take away any feeling of community and destroy any cohesiveness we have amongst ourselves, with friends, places that are part of home and things that daily life offers in our home. How extreme is this.. how paranoid or off-the-wall? Consider what is not being done. First & foremost, how can there be such an aggressive & well-funded approach to a “mental health crisis” declared openly to the world, & not a word about the Housing Crisis?! How, in all these models, treatment options etc and especially in all the recommendations contained in the Task Force Report, can any result be deemed working when those on the receiving end have no safe, decent, affordable domicile. Why are not the causes of mental illness and severe, serious addiction not at the root of all (or any) suggested response. Victoria Morning Bull spoke of the ever-present impacts of colonialisation, residential schools, family dys function leading to alcoholism, addiction, mental illness and more. Treating the symptoms of this without dealing with the societal disparities is just pissing in the wind. Phoenix Winter spoke knowingly, her perspective a result of going through the system as one marginalised. She spoke of how having to use shelters or get assistance now requires you to divulge private medical or addiction history, to answer intrusive and irrelevant questions that are an affront to your dignity. On the surface such are preferred in terms of 'need to know' but the data are made part of records put to uses having nothing to do with the sought support. Ann Livingston condensed “a 2-hour presentation to 10 minutes” when showing what the words & actions of all the departments of the “Aggressive Care Team” approach look/sound like when viewed objectively without the cheerleading of the cops & shrinks and gentry. Jean Swanson spoke briefly about the real crisis in housing, not to divulge the secret no one knew but to give a bit of light. Decent, safe, affordable housing, places with a bathroom & maybe a kitchen, social & filling the needs of low-income people on welfare and pensions. Harold Robbins spoke of the mental impact of living without the means to get through yesterday; psycho-logical disparities and self-deprecation adding to the stress of being legislated to perpetual poverty. Karen Ward, hosting with Herb, made an excellent assessment of all the vested interests & 'stakeholding solvers' in saying that everyone, including severely addicted & mentally ill targets, need friends, good income & housing... understandable without conducting studies, surveys, getting grants, writing reports or setting up Task Forces. Address causes & solutions'll be simple. By PAULR TAYLOR P.S. The Mental Health Task Force Report is going to City Council on Wednesday September 17. Contact the Carnegie Action Project at 604-665-2105 to get your name in to speak to Council and/or a ride there.
↧