Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to address you.
My name is Jackie Rankine. I'm the program manager at Houselink Community Homes.
Houselink was established in 1977 by family members and mental health professionals to respond to community needs for supportive housing. Houselink has continued to grow over the past 35 years, supported by all levels of government and by all major political parties. Everyone involved in Houselink has come together to agree that people with serious and persistent mental illness need a house, a job, and a friend.
Today Houselink operates or administers housing for more than 450 people. We also offer programs only to an additional 100 non-resident members. We call our residents and clients members because Houselink is a membership-based organization wherein half of our board of directors is comprised of people who use our programs and services. We operate in 22 different locations scattered throughout the Toronto downtown core.
Over 10 years ago we began formalizing and developing our efforts to provide employment to our members. Today we provide over 100 part-time, casual jobs to members in work such as building cleaning, landscaping, cooking, programming, and reception. All these part-time positions are supported by full-time staff who organize, schedule, supervise, train, and support the casual positions. Some people in these casual positions have also transitioned to become permanent staff.
At the same time, Houselink has adopted employment equity hiring procedures. As a result, one-third of our permanent labour force share characteristics with our client group—and I should say we have about 75 permanent employees—so a third of our staff have experienced mental illness and/or addictions and/or homelessness. These two strategies, a member-worker program and an equity hiring policy, are outlined and discussed in our report, “Working for Recovery”, which was submitted to your committee and which was just handed out.
We have also submitted three employment success stories from staff who have moved from poverty and homelessness to full-time employment: Judy, Robert, and Keith. It was difficult to select stories to showcase because we have literally dozens of examples of people who have made it. We believe that the intersection of housing, employment supports, and a supportive community offers a unique synergy that makes labour force entry or re-entry possible.
We would like to suggest three ways in which the federal government might strengthen and support return to work for people with mental illness. First, we suggest you strengthen and develop the opportunities program that runs out of Service Canada. Second, we suggest you create a funding stream for supported employment, building upon existing wage supplement programs that are already offered within Service Canada. Third, we suggest that you support public education programs that reduce stigma and discrimination against the mentally ill.
While this kind of education needs to be done at the general societal level, it is especially important to target it towards employers. Unemployment rates among the mentally ill are estimated to be between 70% and 90%.
To speak to each of those points, first, we are very grateful that we are in receipt of annual funding from the opportunities fund. We would like to see the fund developed. We would like to see the fund recognized because people with mental health challenges have often experienced profound setbacks. This can include loss of job and career, housing, and family and friends. People who have undergone these kinds of ordeals often find it hard to follow a program that involves keeping a schedule, maintaining a course of action, and maintaining the demands of government regulations. Despite this, many can and do succeed. We need our funders to be flexible in their requirements and to recognize soft outcomes, such as enhanced self-esteem and confidence, as valid and important steps in long-term change.
We encourage our funding programs to recognize the need for supported employment. Perhaps an enhanced program could draw upon existing wage supplement programs. We believe a supported employment program needs to last at least a year and in some way protect the health and medical benefits that are provided by provincial social assistance programs.
We draw your attention to a supplementary employment program that is being offered in the City of Toronto to people on welfare. It is called the investing in neighbourhoods program and its outcomes are very, very successful.
Finally, we encourage the federal government to support public education initiatives that reduce stigma and discrimination against the mentally ill. Imagine overcoming all the barriers to job seeking that a person with mental illness often faces, only to be confronted by discriminatory attitudes in a job interview.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada has undertaken a review of public education initiatives across Canada in their study, “Opening Minds”. One of the subjects of this review was the Dream Team. The Dream Team is a group of consumer survivors who tell their story. They speak mainly to high schools, colleges, and universities, and I should say they are also sponsored by Houselink. As part of next year's plan, they hope to reach out to the medical profession. Support for the Dream Team and other similar initiatives would go a long way to dispelling some of the myths and fears involved in mental illness.
Finally, I have submitted to the committee a couple of annual reports. There are copies of “Working for Recovery”, which you have before you, and two related reports for your consideration: “What stops us from working?” by John Stapleton, which is about provincial disincentives to employment; and the DREEM report, which is about the possibility of building a recovery-enhancing environment based in our supportive housing stock.
Thank you very much.
