Thank you.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for inviting us to address the committee today. My colleague Margaret Singleton and I are here because we too are deeply concerned about poverty, and in particular, the poverty experienced by people with mental illness.
Salus, the organization we represent, is a non-profit organization that has worked in the community of Ottawa for over 30 years with people with serious mental illness.
As our colleagues here today have said, serious mental illness leads to stigma, social isolation, and poverty. Often it leads to homelessness.
I'm the president of Salus—Salus, by the way, is the Latin word for well-being—and I'm the chair of our 18-member volunteer board of directors. Our board includes clients, former clients, friends and family of people living with mental illness, and others who simply want to make a difference for our client group.
We provide our services in French as well as English. Last year, Ottawa Salus received a partial designation from the provincial government under Ontario's French Language Services Act. This designation ensures that francophones have access to community mental health services in French. About 25% of our 375 clients identify themselves as francophone.
Salus's roots are in supportive housing, and supportive housing is one of the critical elements in the range of services needed by our clients.
Through our 72-person staff, we work with clients towards their recovery, which means, to paraphrase the framework report of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, working towards maximizing their potential and participation in the community and helping them to live fulfilling lives, despite illness that is usually chronic and that always is, or has been, debilitating.
Virtually all of our clients live in poverty, with most dependent on the Ontario disability support program. This means that after paying their rent, they have to live on $554 per month, barely enough for survival let alone full participation in the community, dealing with the extra costs associated with serious illness, or dealing with emergencies or extraordinary events.
I'd now like to ask Margaret Singleton, Salus's executive director, to speak to the needs of our clients and how our services help to meet those needs.