Don’t Say A Word

The Mental Health Injustice

 In 

The Homeless Shelters

Equal rights and justice for all, we have all heard this at some point. But it’s not the case for the mentally challenged in the shelters. Everyday people dealing with a mental illness walk on eggshells trying not to make a sound, trying to not get noticed until the bubble they’re living in pops. Then the ridicule and the judgemental comments start. The equal rights we fight for go out the door and there’s NO JUSTICE. 

The Blame, The Restriction, The Injustice. The system the government and the privately owned shelters have in place does not work and places blame on the person dealing with the mental illness. They put negative comments in their files. They tell them to be silent, while the other residents shout in anger and sometimes attack the individuals. Which makes the individual feel less of a person. When staff can no longer deal with the individual’s mental condition they then restrict the resident from the program. Kicking him or her out of the shelter, putting them on the streets to deal with a mental illness alone. It’s even worse now that the dropins are closed at night. The injustice of it all, to take away the right of a person to be sheltered and place them on the streets to take care of themselves and the only recourse is to file an appeal with the manager that usually sides with the staff. One may ask, what can we do with policies that we didn’t put in place and a mental illness you can’t control? 

What we can control is Staff being retrained on how to handle individuals with mental illness, the residents getting educated that it’s a shared environment, who they could be dealing with and how to handle it. Also the shelter policies need to change to be in accordance with the preamble of the Human Rights Code. Which states that It is public policy in ontario to recognize the dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination that is contrary to law, and having as its aim the creation of a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person so that each person feels a part of the community and able to contribute fully to the development and well-being of the community and the province.

To improve the well-being of the province there needs to be a shelter in place that solely deals with the Mentally Challenged and full that gap. There’s also an issue with people in the homeless system that want to sue the shelters and can’t due to lack of money. There’s a program that I’m starting that will be fighting to implement new policies and helping the mentally challenged of low income to get legal help and get their rights back. It’s called Mental Health 1st. From the non-profit organization called All Access Now. We all need to come together and help this program so people can stop silencing the mentally challenged.