Centre to study mental health, addiction, inequality

A posting from the Simon Fraser University website:

How do the intersections of gender, race, poverty and other social factors affect services and outcomes for people with mental health and addiction issues?

That’s one of the questions SFU’s new Vancouver campus Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health plans to address.

The centre will investigate why there is unequal access to services and health outcomes for people with mental illness and substance-use problems.

It will also help develop programs, policies and interventions to resolve these issues, with the goal of improving adult mental health both in Canada and abroad.

SFU health scientists Marina Morrow [pictured] and Elliot Goldner and the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Howard Chodos will lead the centre, which will include more than 30 national and international co-investigators and collaborators.

Morrow, a community psychologist, specializes in research related to gender and mental health and mental-health reform.

"I would say women are still under-served—most services don’t take gender into account," she says.

"Yet within the female population, women are more at risk of sexual exploitation and violence, particularly if they suffer from mental health issues."

Centre activities will focus on mental health reform; recovery and housing; reproductive mental health; violence, mental health and substance use; and the criminal justice system, mental health and substance use.

"The centre has three main functions," explains Morrow. "To foster research in the key priority areas, to develop knowledge exchange that will encourage implementation of our research findings, and to mentor and train students and community-based researchers who can build capacity in the field of social inequities and mental health."

"There’s a pressing need for this centre," she says, "because there has been very little attention to the ways in which social and structural determinants affect people with mental health issues."

The centre is being funded with nearly $2 million from the Institute of Gender and Health, part of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Photo credit

In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness

A December 8th media release from the Senate of Canada:

Ottawa (December 8, 2009) – A major Senate report tabled today is declaring that Canada’s system for lifting people out of poverty is substantially broken and must be overhauled.

“We began this study by focusing on the most vulnerable city-dwellers in the country, those whose lives are marginalized by poverty, housing challenges and homelessness.” stated Senator Art Eggleton, Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Cities. “As our research evolved, so too did our frustration and concern as we repeatedly heard accounts of policies and programs only making living in poverty more manageable – which essentially entraps people."

The recommendations in the report, In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness, are the summation of a two-year cross-country study. Committee members heard testimony from more than 170 witnesses, including people living in poverty, several of them homeless, as well as universities, think tanks, provincial and local governments and community organizations.

Based on the findings of this extensive study, the Committee’s first and fundamental recommendation is that Canada and all provinces and territories adopt the goal of lifting people out of poverty. Included among the vast range of measures recommended by the Committee to realize this core goal are the coordination of a nationwide federal-provincial initiative on early childhood education; the development of a national housing and homelessness strategy; and the creation of a basic income floor for all Canadians who are severely disabled.

The Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) is an existing government program that the report highlights as bearing real promise because it gives people the pure incentive to get a job. To strengthen the WITB’s capacity to help Canada’s poor, the report recommends that the federal government commit to a schedule of long-term planned increases to bring recipients to the Low Income Cut-off line – as opposed to managing in poverty.

“According to 2007 numbers from Statistics Canada, we spend $150 billion dollars each year in federal and provincial transfer payments to individuals, excluding education and health care costs. So how is it that there are still millions of Canadians weighed down by poverty?” asked Senator Hugh Segal, Deputy Chair of the Subcommittee. “The Committee’s recommendations demonstrate the crucial difference between spending, and spending wisely. By breaking the cycle of poverty once and for all, we will be investing in human empowerment – which will drive the health and prosperity of our cities and yield benefits for all of us.”

The report and more information about the Committee is available at: http://senate-senat.ca/cities-villes-e.asp.


Contact Information

Elizabeth La Forest
Media Relations
613-944-9162
Toll-free: 1-800-267-7362
lafore@sen.parl.gc.ca

Keli Hogan
Committee Clerk
613-993-9021
Toll-free: 1-800-267-7362
Hogank@sen.parl.gc.ca

Proceedings of the Senate Subcommittee on Cities

I saw this on CPAC yesterday. It was a very informative session to view, in my opinion.

From June 5th, 2009:

Today we are having a round table discussion about national strategies on poverty, housing and homelessness. As you know, last June, after quite a number of hearings, we produced an issues and options paper on this subject. Many of the people who came before the committee, both on our road trips and here in Ottawa, said let us have a national strategy on poverty; let us have a national strategy on housing and on homelessness.

We will explore further today how we should develop our recommendations relevant to the federal government dealing with these issues. We will consider whether it should be called a national strategy or whether another approach should be taken.

To read the entire transcript, please click here.

Housing affordability crisis for people with disabilities

A news brief from the June 2009 edition of Psychiatric Services:

In 2008 the national average rent for a modest one-bedroom unit reached $749 per month, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). For the more than four million people with disabilities who rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), this figure exceeds their entire average monthly income of $668.

Rising rents are not the only factor in the housing affordability crisis. Annual income for a person on SSI is $8,016, which has fallen to 18.6% of the national median income for a single-person household and is 30% below the federal poverty level for an individual.

The crisis is described in a new report Priced Out in 2008, the latest in a series published every two years by the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) and the Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force. In 1998, when the first report was issued, there were 44 housing market areas in 13 states where a person on SSI would have to pay more than his or her monthly income for a one-bedroom unit. Ten years later, this was the case in 219 housing market areas across 41 states. The report also describes signs of progress, including 2009 legislation that creates a new National Affordable Housing Trust Fund and that includes tens of billions of dollars in housing relief through changes to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program and commitments of capital funds to public housing. The 47-page report, which was funded by the Melville Charitable Trust, is available at www.tacinc.org.

Also see:

Supportive Housing

Poverty Discussion Points for the Provincial Election

An article posted on May 28th by the Health Promotion Clearing House:

Capital Health, Public Health Poverty Working Group

Discussion Points for the Provincial Election

Spring 2009


The Poverty working group is a multidiscipline group, with representation from all teams in Public Health. In 2008 one of our new strategic mandates launched was to address health inequities. In addition our organization works to promote the population health approach especially by addressing the #1 determinant of health – Income and Social Status (also known as Poverty). Although we work on poverty in the population we have a particular concern for poverty affecting children and youth.

The following points are meant as a guide you can use in talking to candidates in the current provincial election campaign. Please use these in-person conversations, phone calls, e-mails or if you attend candidate debates.


Collaboration: The impact and solution to poverty goes beyond the mandate of one department. Just as the health promotion and protection department must be involved so too must transportation, community services, justice, and education, to name but a few departments.

Will you and your party commit to creating a Poverty Reduction Act with tenants of the Act to include collaboration having all government departments work together on the comprehensive and legislated NS Poverty Reduction Strategy similar to those in Quebec and Ontario?


Affordable Housing: Housing is one of our basic and most costly necessities. There are many issues around affordable housing (dwellings costing less than 30% of before-tax household income) for low income Canadians, including those on social assistance. There is a great need for a Provincial Housing Strategy within the NS Poverty Reduction Strategy, but we need a provincial government that is committed to effective implementation and delivery of existing funding for housing.

What would your party do to effectively implement a housing strategy in Nova Scotia?

Will you and your party commit to the return of the Department of Housing to commit to a Provincial Housing Strategy?


Transportation: Transportation increases a person’s access to health, education, employment, and social opportunities.

If elected what priority would your government place on affordable, accessible transportation that will serve the needs of low-income Nova Scotians?


Support for Children and Families: Children living in poverty face limited opportunities and sometimes go hungry, yet children are poor because their parents are poor. We need to lift the incomes of parents living in poverty and provide better supports for children.

What position does your platform take on the following concerns that will have an impact on child and family poverty?

• Raising the minimum wage to a living wage

• Raising the NS Child Tax Benefit

• Eliminating the wage claw back for people on welfare to allow them to reach a living wage

• Universally accessible childcare and early learning system through daycares and Family Resource Centres

Also see:

Nova Scotia's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PDF)

Report Card on Homelessness in Halifax Questionnaire

Giving Manitoba's poor a better place to live

An article published in today's edition of the Winnipeg Free Press:

The first concrete initiatives from the province's new anti-poverty strategy revolve around housing.

Up to 2,000 people are to benefit from 285 more "mental-health housing units." They will include options ranging from independent living with supports to 24-hour supportive-housing units. Included are 40 units in downtown Winnipeg, with supports, for people who are chronically homeless.

Six hundred low-income Manitobans with mental challenges and an unstable housing situation will receive a rent subsidy of up to $200 a month to access a broader range of private housing. Support workers will be available to help them.

Manitoba Housing's Community Wellness Initiative will be expanded to 14 sites from the current five. Some 760 tenants will receive enhanced services with the addition of 11 housing and mental-health support workers.

The province is adding 100 emergency homeless shelter beds and introducing new emergency homeless shelter standards. The guidelines are to ensure quality, consistent and safe services are provided at Manitoba's five emergency shelters.

A new cold-weather shelter protocol to serve an additional 80 people.

The province will hold a homeless prevention summit this fall.

New Report: Poverty line is being cracked, but not broken

Cross-Canada action needed as economy worsens, National Council of Welfare says


A December 10th press release from the National Council of Welfare:

Toronto, December 10 – While incomes for most Canadians on welfare were stuck far below the poverty line, some cracked that line in 2007, the newest report by the National Council of Welfare says. But tough economic times mean it will be tough to really break through, unless comprehensive, nationwide action is taken, says the advisory body to the federal government.

Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007 looked at the circumstances of Canadians on welfare in all provinces and territories. The study by the National Council of Welfare found that in the case of the lone parent with a pre-school age child living in Quebec, welfare income for 2007 reached 100 per cent of the Market Basket Measure (MBM), a poverty line measurement that takes into account the cost of meeting basic needs in different parts of Canada.

In the case of the lone parent with a pre-schooler in Newfoundland and Labrador, welfare income slightly surpassed the MBM, at 103 per cent.

“This information is considered significant because welfare incomes in Canada have historically been only a fraction of the real costs of survival and far below the poverty line”, said John Rook, Chair of the Council. “This means that lone-parent incomes, which include social assistance and federal child benefits, have reached a level that begins to give these families a reasonable chance in life. Even more encouraging, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have poverty reduction strategies in place where social assistance is part of a larger, integrated framework with links to child care, health, education, and labour market policies. This can truly help people to get ahead.”

At the same time, however, the report found that single employable people receive welfare incomes at less than half of the MBM in most provinces, far below any measure of poverty or decency.

These incomes range from a low of 27 per cent of the MBM to a mere 67 per cent even in the best of cases. The Council is also concerned about the maze of rules and regulations that can trap welfare recipients and often discourages or even prohibits them from helping themselves out of poverty.

For example, people on welfare can keep little or none of their earnings if they can find some employment, which can discourage them from looking for work. Administrative rules vary throughout the country, but the new report details consistently how qualifying for welfare is a complicated, cumbersome and stigmatizing process.

As the economy deteriorates, the National Council of Welfare is concerned that the number of Canadians facing hardship will likely grow. In addition to welfare recipients, there are people who manage to leave the welfare system on their own, and others who can’t qualify, have been cut off or won’t sacrifice their assets or dignity to apply, Rook noted. While some may get ahead, others may be trading one form of poverty for another, and that is not good news for Canada anytime, especially not now.

“A comprehensive, pan-Canadian strategy to solve poverty is needed”, Rook added. “It should have targets and timelines, a plan of action, accountability and measurable indicators.” Many partners must be involved. Canada is not unique. “For any nation to solve poverty or foster prosperity there must be government action, political will and a real recognition of the human face of poverty.”

Media contact:
Carrie Breckenridge (613) 552-3527

The report and additional documentation are available at www.ncwcnbes.net.

For hard copies of the report, contact:
The National Council of Welfare
112 Kent Street, 9th Floor
Place de Ville, Tower B
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0J9

Telephone: (613) 957-2961
Fax: (613) 957-0680

The National Council of Welfare is an independent body established to advise the federal government on issues related to poverty and social development.

Welfare Incomes, 2006 and 2007 estimates total welfare incomes in the 13 provinces and territories for four types of households: a single employable person; a single person with a disability; a lone parent with a two-year old child, and; a two-parent family with two children aged 10 and 15. There are 53 scenarios in all because Alberta has an additional program for persons with disabilities. The NCW has produced similar estimates since 1986.

Click on the image to magnify it.

Also see:

2007 Provincial Welfare Rates Compared to the MBM (National Council of Welfare Fact Sheet)

Governments must 'step up’ on poverty

Welfare recipients poorer than Canadians imagine: report

Economy hits poor hardest

Welfare inadequate to meet needs: report

Activists demand action against poverty

From the November 16th edition of The Chronicle Herald:

Province not giving enough support, rally told

By Tom Peters, Staff Reporter

Anti-poverty activists and support organizations took their cause to the streets of downtown Halifax on Saturday, demanding that the provincial government take action to assist poor people.

About 100 people, including young and old representing a variety of community groups, organizations and service agencies, chanted slogans, beat on drums and carried signs that bore messages such as Economic crisis not new to us, Stop the war on the poor, Child in poverty and Daycare for kids not bailouts for banks.

Their demands focused on increased social assistance, a raise in the minimum wage, increased access to employment insurance, affordable housing, universal childcare and affordable post-secondary education.

After a brief rally in Victoria Park, the activists marched to Province House, where speakers called for government action. There were no politicians at the House on Saturday.

Wayne MacNaughton, an advocate for the homeless, told the gathering in the park that politicians need to be held accountable for the things they are not doing. He said politicians demand report after report on poverty issues "yet they have known for years what needs to be done because every report always says the same thing," he said.

Mr. MacNaughton was critical of the lack of funds for Pendleton Place, a Halifax shelter for the homeless that won’t reopen this winter.

He said that was "appalling since government has done absolutely nothing to address the underlying issue, which is more affordable housing and more community supports for people suffering from mental illness and addictions. They have done nothing on either of those things."

To read the entire article, click here.

Also see:

Protestors call for end to the 'war on the poor'

Photograph by Ingrid Bulmer, The Chronicle Herald.

Show support

A letter to the editor published in the September 25th edition of The Chronicle Herald:

Beginning Oct. 1, people who receive social assistance in Nova Scotia will see a $4 increase to their monthly income. This paltry increase is a long way from bringing social assistance rates up to the standard of the low-income cut-off level.

In its 2006 report, The National Council on Welfare reported that social assistance recipients in Nova Scotia have lost 20 per cent of their purchasing power since the late 1980s. The council notes that between 1989 and 2002, welfare incomes for employable, single persons with a disability, lone parents, and couples have seen their incomes decline in all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and New Brunswick.

It is ironic that social assistance personal allowance rates are going up 1.96 per cent while Nova Scotia Power is looking to increase its rates by 9.4 per cent.

The Halifax Coalition Against Poverty will be holding a press conference at the Department of Community Services, 2131 Gottingen St., at 11 a.m. on Oct. 1 to demand that the provincial government raise social assistance rates to a livable level. Please come and show your support.

Sharon Murphy, Halifax

Day of Action Against Poverty in Nova Scotia

Click on the image to enlarge it.

To join the Information List-Serve for the Nova Scotia Day of Action Against Poverty - November 15, 2008, click here.

On the road to reduce poverty

From the July 7th edition of The Toronto Star:

By Carol Goar

The experts and activists have spoken. Now the Senate committee examining urban poverty wants to hear from the people.

This summer, Senator Art Eggleton and his five colleagues (three Liberals, two Conservatives) head out to ask Canadians what they want to see in a national poverty reduction plan, how it should be designed and who should pay for it.

They'll visit eastern Canada in August, Toronto and Montreal in September and the four western provinces in October.

The committee will provide witnesses with a 90-page report that distills the testimony it has heard over the past 18 months and sets out a list of options – 103 in fact – ranging from the complete replacement of the current income support with a guaranteed annual income to a few low-cost adjustments.

Even those who don't plan to attend the hearings will find Poverty, Housing and Homelessness: Issues and Options (available at by clicking here) an excellent primer.

To read the entire article, click here.

Photograph of Senator Art Eggleton courtesy of the Senate of Canada.

Major Problem Often Overlooked When Linking Violence, Illness

To read this article written by Mark Moran and published in the February 1st issue of Psychiatric News, click here.