“The question is: What is a welfare recipient whose only social contacts are people they know from soup kitchens and food banks supposed to do when at very short notice they need someone to come with them to the emergency room?” Kendall Worth to the rescue!
Sarah is 38 years old. She has lived with a learning disability her whole life and when she got older was diagnosed with OCD, mild anxiety disorder and Asperger. She has $315 left after rent, special diet and telephone is paid. That is $315 to pay her power bill and get groceries that are not covered in the special diet allowance.
Day surgery and the mandatory ride home is a problem for poor people, as are mental health issues. In this letter anti-poverty advocate Kendall Worth offers excellent solutions to Health minister Randy Delorey.
Kendall Worth writes on yet another person living in poverty who encounters problems getting home after day surgery. Good thing poor people look out for each other, even if they don’t know one another!
Kendall Worth shows once again how what most people would consider simple problems are often almost insurmountable obstacles for people on income assistance. Poverty, stigma and isolation make many things much more complicated.
Community Services will pay for the cab for a person who is getting released from day surgery if the person cannot take the bus home. But finding someone to accompany you home who the hospital approves of is sometimes difficult, Kendall Worth reports.
Kendall Worth follows up on his earlier stories about a woman who had to go in for day surgery but who had nobody to stay with her during the first two weeks of her eight-week recovery, even though the hospital insisted that this be the case. Turns out she has been getting nightly check-up visits from the police. No matter how well intended, she isn’t happy about it, especially since the visits were arranged by the hospital without her permission.
Everything is harder when you’re poor and by yourself, and needing surgery, including eight weeks of rest to recover, often is a major source of stress. Who is going to go to the food bank for you? How about the laundry? And what about the loneliness? Kendall Worth reports on his meeting with a woman who is facing this scary scenario.