Sunday, 6 October 2024

Mental health and poverty

Kendall Worth on friendship, poverty, and feeling discouraged

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Most articles about poverty focus on the obvious things, lack of money, bills that pile up, dealing with Community Services and landlords, and so on. Kendall for a long time now has covered these issues, but he also writes about about some of the less obvious hurdles in the lives of people living in poverty. Here he writes about his idea on how to deal with loneliness and social isolation that so many people who live in poverty face on a daily basis.

Kendall Worth: In Halifax police and security guards are harassing poor people with mental health issues

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Kendall Worth reports how at times people on Income Assistance who have involuntary body behaviours like fidgeting or talking to themselves but are just minding their own business are being bothered by police or private security guards.”I recently learned of three people who had this happen to them in Halifax. As you will see, one of those three incidents ended up badly,” he writes.

PSA: YWCA Halifax position on proposed Halifax smoking by-law

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The YWCA Halifax has issued a statement about the Halifax smoking ban, an they don’t mince words. “The proposed smoking by-law will disproportionately affect Halifax’s Black, Indigenous, homeless, and poor citizens. It is, in effect, a social policy whose outcome is to criminalize the poor and increase scrutiny and risk into their lives.”

Kendall Worth: Full of hope

“The other day I met this young woman who is on income assistance, and who nonetheless keeps having a positive attitude and remains full of hope that someday she will get off the system. Her life is hard, and Community Services isn’t making it any easier for her,” writes Kendall Worth

Tim Blades: Poverty hurts, but advocacy helps

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Frequent contributor Tim Blades on living in poverty, his struggle with illness and mental health issues, and the urgent need to be compassionate and open with one another. “Now I want to delete that last paragraph. My heart is racing just from typing that last paragraph. While I want to be safe and delete that last paragraph, If I let go of that secret, it’s just one less thing for me to hold onto.”