Thank you
all for coming out today. So great to
see so many of my colleagues
stuff from different areas from the
University nursing and psychiatry from
the Lachlan
and family iight so what i'm about it I
don't wanna my areas I've research
that really impede that issue of social
integration for people mental health
problems
is the issue where unfortunately
many people end up homeless and and how
does this happen
on but before getting into the content
as mentioned the participatory action
research line ever do
research on my own and it as much as
very long term partnerships
and so even though I stand here is that
individual person under the research I
ripped I refer to
did i do individually it it involve many
people
I my kitten community partners I've been
absolutely blast for some of them I per
with for close to twenty years call
investigators staff
I am so without the the support I could
not
do the research I do so what other
things before
getting into it is to think about if
housing a right
or privilege I we talk about healthcare
in Canada is being entrenched as a right
what what about housing is housing a
right I'm
at just as a clue I United Nations has
declared housing a ride
and Canada has has signed on to that
doctor extended take them quite a while
quite a while actually candles when the
last countries to sign on
Mason at the attire to some ambivalence
there but as we talk about this too
just come back to that idea is housing
especially our country I can do in the
winter we've had
did think about it is it is the having a
roof over your head a right or privilege
so what are the issues that
really has struck be over the years arm
having worked as a practitioner working
so hard to get people into the community
it's very disheartening defines so many
people with mental illness actually
ending up homeless
and it it's a very high
proportion some studies in Canada found
up to 75 percent of people in homeless
shelters
have a diagnosed psychiatric a
illness I in terms well what we can
third traditional depression
schizophrenia and another 75 percent I
thought the overlap
with substance use and when you look at
that area of overlap is almost nobody
that doesn't have a either I have for
youth
I who arrive on the street was no
previous substance abuse
I issues at six weeks a further into I D
drug use
I had so there's a very high correlation
here
so why is that is it something about
mental illness
that predispose people to homelessness
the something about homelessness by
that example the IP drug use maybe that
predispose us to mental health
or is there something about our societal
response to both
I'm Mentone with and home with Steph
that that is creating this problem lot
of people say that
homelessness is just too complicated
it's too complex to understand
nobody knows how to address it on I
always say if you understand the game a
musical chairs
you can understand what's happening and
homelessness and come up with a strategy
so here's musical chairs sure your you
all played it at some point so what I
want to think about this the chairs
represent the amount affordable housing
within a community
that said housing about someone at the
lowest strata
a income can actually afford to live in
and maintain the utilities
the people circling are the poor
those are the people that need to access
the housing app at lower level
the difference it's going to be your
home ice in the community
if there's not enough housing for people
who need the housing
you're going to end up with the homeless
problem so you think about in that way
it's really not that complicated after
that there is more to it
people often say in the homeless factor
its
its never only about housing but it's
always about how the same
so
what's happened to the chairs in Canada
I it we've gone through at quite a
period
up downloading I'm so it's come from the
federal to the provincial
to the Minister Paul level are you can
go to buildings here in london that
now-failed London housing but used to
say Ontario housing that is to say
Canada housing
if the same building but that's what's
happened as it's been downloaded
I'm housing is a very expensive budget
item justification your
in your own budget probably how the
housing will it cost
are probably a huge part a beer budget
as well
on a government level it's a huge part
so
what each government have that play this
kinda hot potato and moved it down
through the levels
as away up getting rid of that expense
but what's happened as a whole is the
actual amount particularly a public
housing being built
has rapidly diminished so when we had
Canada housing we had as many as a
hundred thousand public housing units
being built across the country when that
got downloaded to the provinces a some
years that went down a swell with pride
housing now you know when you build a
house that doesn't last forever
so if you're only building another 5,000
unit that's not even gonna replace
really what's going on when Ontario
downloaded to the Minnesota level they
are
also keep communities the option to opt
out entirely
I'm prior to the path thing we did not
have a homeless problem in Canada
10 so it it's very important to look at
that
candor is the only industrialized nation
in the world
that does not have housing ap that
national level
so at the same time told that's what
happened to our chairs
so at the same time what has happened to
income supports what we know
one thing in terms of the economy we
have a lot greater problem
what you know other been a few up a
downtown unemployment if someone has a
mental health problem
the most likely if it's a serious
long-term mental health problem
most likely rely on either welfare
ontario works
or disability something Ontario
disability support
during the same period about downloading
I'm during the Harris years welfare
payments were actually cut by 25 percent
at the same time as the I on public
housing
dried out I so in other words we put a
whole lot of extra people circling the
chairs at the same time we were taking
away the chairs
so sometimes musical chairs doesn't work
out so well
so what was happening in mental health
at this time
what we called the institutionalize
Asian some people with its not the
institutionalized patients the hospital
I patient depending on where people
and up I
I theoretically ideal but part of what
it's only just to give you a sense like
we had in the 1960 almost 20,000
psychiatric hospital beds I'm down to
left and
2000
hot and we went to in the period that
that happened there was that again
a gap over a decade up no increase to
community mental health funding
that happened at the same time as
the that policy change with housing and
the same time
as these changes in income support
so when you look at this the question
should not be why did so many people
with mental health problems end up
homeless
how could you possibly expect any other
outcome the problem is because these
policies were happy and different area
people were
often not aware that these these
different issues were kinda creating a
bit of a perfect storm
on that the institutionalization with
certainly mirrored
on elsewhere but whether or not home op
people with mental health problems
became homeless
with very much related to what was
happening in North
other areas such as income support and
housing
I disc this is a comes out from the teen
psychiatric
I Research Foundation heart disease just
another excuse for lay people not to
work
imaginable treated everyone like between
people mental math
and I think that highlights from the
stigma and discrimination
at that happens with people mental
illness so in that game
I musical chairs some people have better
access to the chairs than others
and stigma and discrimination we know
people meant only to the most admit I've
group in society when you look at who do
you wanna hire
who do you want to rent to would you
want your daughter to marry
I'm then someone with a mental illness
it's not there so
in that same game musical chairs there
may have been
even more difficulty grabbing what few
chairs are there
I opted my students because they often
will be the thing people are home if
they can't believe the rent people are
paying
for such poor locations and I remind
them
but they hit the students are offered
from those people circling around
but a landlord who do you want to rent
to that third year nursing student
or the person with schizophrenia that
spent 10 years in a psychiatric hospital
now the reality is that person's got to
prove his prime napping have as many
parties
I and and may not trash to push her
like to like that we make it but we make
assumptions and so
it's the student as well are special to
me like that but maybe scooping some of
those tears as well
so what can be done about it 10 things
you do need to think globally and think
that this larger policy context
but act I locally and part about
thinking globally is to be thinking
about it as
assistance failure rather than a
personal failure
I'm to not take it down to that
individual it's because
up what you are doing personally that
you ended up rather than recognising
we have allowed this entire policy and I
say I mention about
United Nations I'm
stand on housing it's a bright they
united to the back investigate a parent
it twice now
for their poor housing policy and this
should be an embarrassment
to all about that our housing policy
so poor but United Nations has to have
come in a second time
saying what what what are you doing but
it some of our most disadvantaged in our
society at that are really getting
caught in math
in terms of acting locally we need
solutions that
also cross actors because the problem
across the sector so do the solutions
and we need to advocate per strategies
that either increase the chairs
or decrease the people if we have
strategies that just help one group grab
the chairs faster than another
that does not call the overall problem
and sometimes that's what happens you
have
particular subgroup so the policies
complete allow one group ahead
had brought the tears faster I'm
but that will not solve the problem of
homelessness so how do you increase the
chairs
I think the City of London has actually
done a really good job
in the last several years there's been a
major investments to increase the amount
to public housing
and a also very much is it that
evidence-based approach we have a few
cities across
and the country that are really trying
to make these kinds of investments
I and damn looking at these
evidence-based approaches
those communities are bucking the
national trend are actually seeing a
decrease in homeless in London we're
seeing
fewer people in the last two years using
homeless shelters where's the rest the
country to still increasing
the youth have rent subsidies were you
thinking our home with veteran project
I'm were allowing people to act fast
market
properties I which together with
increasing the chairs
we've had work but the Sisters of Saint
Joseph that are homeless youth project
that simply provided a fifty dollar
grand
yet that allowed people to access how we
think that they would not normally be
able to house but not with
such a big gap bad they wouldn't be able
to make it up
out themselves after a year this allowed
them
to go more into that neighborhood have
choice for the to get other the downtown
core away from the drug trade in the
facts straight that fifty dollars
a month made a big difference adds to
the type of housing which chairs
they could grab I'm
examples a decreasing the people
circling we've had
I'm we had a project I involving ontario
works
I'm and Canadian Mental Health
Association where we set
a setup a a direct internet connection
from our psychiatric wards
where people could directly pay I but
don't care works for quick %uh man
and could access that ontario works
database of the months rent with in
arrears or they
need a personal last months rent they
could do that right from the hike at
record
and through CMHA we actually had I'm
a at through the internet again a lot
every available
I'm apartment in London so bad
even though there was a very short on
thursday we could quickly get housing
quickly get that paid for
by doing that we actually reduce
discharged to home with aspire
fire over 95 percent from our psych at
reports
so is a very important strategy to
prevent people
from circling around I'm
and thanks for those community partners
I'll several projects with the City of
London
I we've got that we really use housing
first
harm reduction housing first it's a
strategy
where you say it's everything you gotta
be good enough and then we'll get your
house
housing percent housing is a right will
get you helped
first and then we'll worry about the
other things
and not is very much in evidence for a
based
approach that com and harm reduction is
a way of dealing with something issues
that takes people where they are
and works with them to have I'm it may
not be total absence if they're not
ready for p/
do things in a way and that free sample
whatever homeless veterans
project on the better in I'm talked
about having been on the street for
twenty years
and not having had a real alcoholic
beverage
that anyone else consider an alcoholic
beverage I
hand sanitizer most-watched
but not an alcoholic beverage now very
proud being a home but he's got a year
only drinking vodka it's an alcoholic
which was a huge hit so you can just
imagine
pride you take now can say in the last
year
I've only had but no mouthwash no hand
sanitizer
no the first aid alcohol town how he
survived thinking twenty years
that I'm and now I'm maybe I'm too great
to start cutting down on the vodka
impact I and
anyway the these projects and as well
but we working with
I'm at the on social enterprises touch
with impact junk solutions
good will reach a metal how got to look
at with the weapon social enterprises
what you do
its were actually creating jobs so for
example in
impact John I'll what they do if they
have a jump removal service
I work everybody who is employed there
has a mental illness
they run the organization they make a
profit in with the jump they move they
also
I but i fix it up and and where possible
provide that other people with mental
illness
I so it against a very good solution to
help
prevent as many people from circling
around those chairs
I'm so what we found archaeological
evidence that apparently musical
chairs a sprint have played for and
hundreds or thousands of years
and the suggestions perhaps we need to
start playing a different game and be a
little bit
up more creative style that is a very
fast overview talking about
why do we have so many people who have
mental health problems are some soup you
that are homeless and some ideas about
what we can do about it
thank you
