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Rare breakthrough on mental health [disclosures]
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Jul 26 2011
Police information checks, routinely required by employers and voluntary agencies, will no longer include any reference to an incident involving mental health that did not result in criminal charges… The new guidelines won’t solve everything. They’re not binding; each police force will set its own policies. Nor do they seal all mental health records. Organizations with vulnerable clients will still have access to relevant mental health information. Most stakeholders, however, consider them a fair compromise. It shouldn’t have taken this long to get the balance between privacy and public safety right
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, participation, rights
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Sour taste in ‘sweet’ Tory pension plan
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Jul 21 2011
…Menzies is now promoting is a voluntary, privately administered scheme for companies without a pension plan, their employees and self-employed workers… Sixty per cent of Canadian workers — 75 per cent in the private sector — have no pension. But it won’t protect workers’ savings from market turbulence nor will it provide post-retirement security. There is no guarantee that any of these pooled pension plans will be large enough to be sustainable…. It is certainly better than nothing. But it is a second-best solution and a poor substitute for strengthening the Canada Pension Plan
Tags: ideology, pensions, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Liberals embellish their record — clumsily
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Jul 19 2011
… a taxpayer-funded pre-election handout or a serious defence of his government’s social policy record. Either way, Ontario Building Stronger Communities fails… Their self-congratulatory verbiage eclipsed their genuine achievements. They transformed Ontario’s child welfare system with their $1,100 a year provincial child benefit. They made Ontario a leader in the development of clean energy and water conservation technology. They introduced full-day kindergarten in Ontario’s schools. And they carved out 4.3 million acres of green space.
Tags: ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Ontario takes a backward step on mental health
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Jul 12 2011
… the Ministry of Health began negotiating the hand-off of Ontario’s Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, an independent provincial agency, to the Canadian Mental Health Association… It upsets [mental health advocates] that there was no public consultation. And it worries them that the ministry is chipping away at the rights of one of the most vulnerable groups in society under the guise of “integrating” health services. But their biggest concern is that the government is poised to walk away from its role as the guardian of Ontarians with mental disabilities.
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Acronyms reduce citizens to baffled bystanders
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Jul 05 2011
Acronyms prevent people from understanding public issues. They obstruct informed debate. They exclude most of the population from significant conversations. And they drive journalists crazy… There is nothing intrinsically wrong with acronyms. Almost all workplaces have them. Many voluntary organizations… use them… Most people have the courtesy to use them where they belong. Bureaucrats, for some reason, don’t. They assume it is incumbent on everybody else to learn their acronyms and keep track of them all.
Tags: participation
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
The best kept secret in health care
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Jun 14 2011
Community health centres are the closest thing Canada has to Tommy Douglas’s dream: a health-care system that treats people, not symptoms. They deal with the underlying causes of illness: poverty, isolation, poor diet, mental disorders. They thrive in places where people don’t speak English, don’t have access to a family doctor and don’t know how to navigate Canada’s complex, rigidly compartmentalized medical system. They welcome anyone who walks in the door regardless of race, background, socio-economic status or sexual orientation.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
The high price of being a trailblazer
Friday, June 10th, 2011
Jun 09 2011
Thousands of students with disabilities have to miss classes, drop courses and extend their years of university, taking on more debt than their nondisabled peers. In 2007, she launched a constitutional challenge, alleging that the Canada Student Loan Program violates the equality clause in the Charter of Rights… Simpson can’t afford to keep fighting… She earns a modest salary as a counsellor at the Canadian Hearing Society. But she refuses to buckle. This is no longer about her. It’s about all the young people with disabilities who are counting on her to be their trailblazer.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s overlooked health crisis
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Jun 07 2011
“Treatment for mental health and addiction issues right now is determined by your postal code,” says Mary Alberti, who heads the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario. She doesn’t think that’s right. She doesn’t think most Ontarians would tolerate this level of disparity, if they knew… That’s why the 10 provincial organizations that provide help for people with mental illness and addictions… have banded together for the first time… “We’re looking to make this a huge issue in the next election”…
Tags: Health, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Great pension crisis becomes forgotten issue
Friday, May 27th, 2011
May 26 2011
It’s time for baby boomers to wake up… Approximately half of them — middle income earners in particular — will experience a substantial drop in their standard of living when they retire. What’s more, Wolfson says, none of the proposals floated since the 2008 recession would provide much relief. “Governments will have to look at more ambitious and novel reforms than the ones currently under consideration”… Middle-class baby boomers have the most to lose.
Tags: ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Why talented Canadians can’t find work
Friday, May 20th, 2011
May 19 2011
Three reports have been released in the past week warning that Canada’s labour market is so badly broken that it creates more losers than winners and threatens the country’s economic vitality… there were common themes: • Waiting for the policy-makers to solve the problem won’t work… • Waiting for big business to spot and hire talented newcomers won’t work… • Waiting for the “invisible hand of the market” to bring supply and demand into balance won’t work… This makes it essential for decision-makers to work together.
Tags: economy, immigration
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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