11:38 AM - 08.09.04
Don`t Shoot the Messenger
One of the things that distressed and disturbed me the most when I volunteered in ways to address family violence was the responses of the different care providers to each other. The reason I got involved was because, while I was volunteering in my sons`classes, I would too often have to deal with a child or Mom who had been beaten or abused in some other way - either sexually, emotionally, psychologically and on and on. At the time, there was a major economic recession occurring that was battering the whole province. Because ours was one of the newest areas and one where most of the families were just starting out financially - employed in the very industry that was in conflict with the government at the time - it was among the hardest hit. Many families that had been flourishing just prior to the economic downturn, could not withstand the pressure brought on by loss of jobs combined with criminally high interest rates.
The different coping responses to those circumstances were sometimes guaranteed to make things even worse. Drug and alcohol abuse soared. With it the breakdown of the family structure and violence became an integral part of the lives of too many children and moms, who were defenseless because of the unforeseen poverty that wiped out all the resources they once had. Many of the families had migrated to Calgary from other provinces or countries, specifically to build a life for themselves based on the local economy/industry. That meant there were no networks of family or friends to fall back on emotionally or resource wise. Of the family and friends living here, most were in the same dire straits and drowning in the joblessness and poverty of the time.
The governments of the day`s response was to blame the very victims/pawns of their public and corporate power struggle and remove or withold even more supports that might have been enough to help people get back on their feet. All of a sudden the unemployment benefits were slashed, family resource services and centers were cut back to the bone or completely discontinued, families with sickness to deal with were now being taxed - excuse me user fee`d to death - for medicines and supplies that were critical to just maintaining the life of their loved ones. Schools and their staff were all of a sudden being portrayed as parasites, feeding on and responsible for the economic crisis that they had no part in creating, instead of being seen as the investment in the future that they were. Shame and guilt were heaped on anyone who spoke up in behalf of the targets of the politicos and woe betide the person drowning in poverty if they had the nerve to ask for help meeting even basic needs - you know fuel to heat their homes in -30 C/F weather, or food to feed the family.
One of the tasks I undertook with respect to the violence I was witnessing was to contact helping agencies like the police, the hospitals and the social service network to see if there was a better way to co-ordinate all the available resources, so that when someone needed a safe way to leave a violent situation they weren`t forced back into it at the peak of the violence cycle because of holes in the safety net. The trigger was a young woman who had fled with her infant when her spouse told her was going to kill them both and proceeded to try. She managed to get away, but none of the agencies I just mentioned had space or protection to give her. You see it happened just before Christmas on a day when it was -30 C and there was no more room at the inn. She had no family she could get to and was new in town. We only heard about it after the fact and, quite honestly, the idea of sheltering someone in your home when you know one of their family members is out hunting them, weapon in hand, is a very difficult decision to make when you have a houseful of children of your own to protect. I ran a dayhome at the time, so I also had other family`s children that would have become the targets of someone who had already declared he would shoot anyone who helped her. She eventually returned to him the next day, because she only had the clothes on her back and no funds to even buy food for herself and her child. Made me sick at heart. The worst of it was that there was at lest one similar incident almost weekly for a while. I couldn`t turn my back on what was going on, but I had neither the resources or the skills to address the problems.
What would have helped most? Well real jobs, that were stable and that paid a fair wage, but that just wasn`t within our purview. The second line of help was the support serivces that had been in place, but they were being dismantled at an unprecedented rate. The government pleading poverty in the richest province in the country. That government forgetting that they were stewards of the revenue and resources that come from our land, water and air - not the owners or sole heirs as they acted. The saddest part was hearing a nurse say blaming things about the police service because they didn`t attend a home violence incident quick enough, even knowing what a police officer entering such a scenario was likely to risk to help. Then hearing a police officer blame a social worker because they had no more beds or closets left to hold one more frightened child on a given night. Then to hear the social worker blame the nurse because they missed the signs of abuse after a 48 hours shift in the hospital emergency room, because of the severe cutbacks in pay for medical staff and even more severe cutbacks in the jobs funded for hospitals. Then there was the press and the pulpits who blamed the women`s shelters for breaking up homes and and the police for interfering in a man`s private domain. Oh yes and blaming the children or woman for "provoking" it in the first place. Yup. Right. The only person responsible for making their family flee was the person being violent. The government and the private sector industries were equally responsible for the violent deaths and injuries in that they made certain that their profits came before the basic needs of the community they were drawing all their wealth from.
So why this little homily now? I keep seeing echoes of that everywhere I look right now. In the classrooms, hospital rooms, police, fire and ambulance stations, in the shelters for the abused, displaced or homeless and in the public and corporate offices in our communities. The people who are charged with the tasks of caring for and nurturing the vulnerable and weak in our society are all being starved to death themselves. Their ability to do their jobs choked off by the lack of even basic resources to meet the requirements of their jobs. Worse yet is the constant lack of nurturing they need to receive from the community of common interest they serve, it being witheld or eroded by the carping and blaming of the same forces as before - the servers of Mammon - if one wants to be melodramatic about it.
Work today? I didn`t hear directly from my supervisor at all. When I arrived - reluctantly - in the morning, nothing had change and I was trying to talk myself in to just staying on site for the day. I put my headphones on in the boardroom because neither computer that I was allowed to work on was functional at the time. I started the technical analysis duties from where I`d left off. Around about 9 am I realized that the pattern of the day had changed. None of the other staff had come around to talk or to collect the work that I had been told I had to have ready for their morning. Took the one batch of work to the liaison and she acted as though she was walking on eggshells in talking with me -trying very hard to be polite. Then I went to see the brother with the next batch of information and to ask when he wanted to begin working on the tasks he had set out for us to work together on just as I was leaving the night before.
As I walked past the one station that I`d been told I would have to work at - the 4 x 4 cubbyhole crowded with the computer and scanner, no work space for the paperwork, no phone, no drawers - that sat at the juncture of three hallways next to the bathrooms, kitchen and copyroom, I noticed that the technology was being packed up and moved. Orders had just been given that I was to be placed in one of the two empty workstations that was similar to the other two - the brother and the co-ordinator - who work in the library. The tech was a bit put out but was being good natured about it as best she could. The brother backed away from asking me to do the work that I am not being paid the rates to do, and that are still under negotiation, in the contract. He was treading very carefully too. The co-ordinator wouldn`t look at me nor would the tech who had been in the washroom the day before catting with the others.
The liaison even allowed that what I had surmised about the signatures she was trying to determine about a week ago was also correct. Trying to cover up what the co-ordinator had done wasn`t an option any more, but she was sure trying to give it an interesting spin. "Oh she just didn`t realize the impact of what she was doing." Uh huh. I felt better knowing that my supervisor had intervened on my behalf and that I wasn`t going to be forced into physical and work circumstances that were making it nearly impossible for me to do my job. It is curious though that I have had no direct communication with him for the past two weeks - it isn`t like him and it worries me. I hope he is alright.
The atmosphere in the office was really strained all day though. It appeared some of the scientists had been told I was poison, although I have never done anything for them to be concerned about. If anything, I`m the one who has advocated hard with the records staff, who are supposed to serve them, to make certain that they have the resources they need when they need them instead of forcing them to beg or play politics in order to have access.
At lunch I finally managed to get away for about half an hour, so I walked around the new nature area on Prince`s Island - all I had the time to do. I felt much better for the break and reached the elevators just before the VP for the department walked up. Sure,just when I`m covered in sweat and probably a bit "scented" to boot. He made a point of asking how work was going and if I was alright. That made me feel better too. Returned upstairs and spent the better part of the afternoon moving all my projects into the new work space, running for supplies and just setting up a workable staging area mostly. The brother came by a few times to add treasures or to give direction about clearing out all the materials filling the boardroom. At one point, he started doing a really creditable Sean Connery imitation. No end to his talents it seems. Had me laughing anyway. He asked me to work on a couple of scanning projects that both revealed some significant problems. We talked about them and I did a couple of show and tells both about the database and with respect to the way a certain class of property files had been handled. He didn`t like any of what I haad to tell him, but at least seemed to understand I wasn`t trying to cause trouble for him. At some point maybe the sister and he will realize that the problems have existed for a while, because of lack of care, attention and resources for the past decade or so. All I`m trying to do is identify and help fix them. Don`t shoot the messenger.
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