Looking Out

Posted: April 14, 2013 in Uncategorized
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conference

Sometime we are so enmeshed with ourselves and the small space around us that we fail to notice the broader weave of the world beyond us. We don’t lift our heads high enough above the crowd, often enough,for long enough, to see where we are and whats going on around us. This isn’t just about myopia, but about our sometimes inward looking disposition. Even the tools we use predispose us to this. Twitter, a favorite of mine, while on the surface is about broadcasting out, could in fact be seen as broadcasting in. It becomes the means to say “hey here I am, I’m someone too, you should pay attention to me, don’t ignore me.” I think there’s some truth to this.

I recently heard to a famous newscaster say that Twitter, Facebook, etc, are really mini press conferences. Even this blog is really a means to share, beyond my small circle, what I am thinking about and why. It is as much a press conference as the network news shows.

It is in these broadcasts that I have seen a trend for inclusion and exclusion. As soon as you are able to share something it gives you status depending on who responds or not. Everything from “I’m not feeling well”, to a frustration in the work place, become a measure of status depending on who ,and how many, respond. This creates a power differential that seems to be antithetical to the espoused ethos of these tools – to be open and inclusive. Many times I have seen some supported and seen their status lifted despite the fact they rarely support anything outside their own work or projects. I may be guilty of this too, in fact it’s very possible.

Then there is the enthusiastic supporting, in the most enthusiastic terms, of other peoples feelings, projects, work, or health. This, in and of itself ,is not a bad thing but there seems to be a frenetic build to this amongst the people I see on some of these networks. In many way I think this is natural given the times we live in. If everyone is supporting each other enthusiastically then we feel less alone, more inclused. Sometimes cooperation happens and some really lovely things happen as a result. But this is often exclusionary as well. It happens for some but not others. Again I am sure I am guilty of this more so than than the people I see doing this.

So why am I sharing this with you, here, in my mini press conference? I think it’s because I am feeling a need to look up and around as opposed to inward. Again, I am no better than anyone else ,and in fact often much worse, but I think it’s time for me to try to reach beyond myself and the space I occupy. I think it’s time for me to find ways to authentically support the people in my life and to also care enough to share my frustrations with those I am frustrated with. Not out of any superiority, as I certainly have little to feel superior about, but rather because it might help them to help me be a better person. I expect this will not be easy, nor will it be successful.

I am not a great man, a deep thinker, a community leader, but a minor player in a a larger community. My success in all things, in every aspect of my life, comes because those around me have lifted me a little.Have been brave enough to be honest with me. Have elevated me a small amount through their generosity, kindness, openness, and love. That’s how I am going to try to move forward. I might end up with a few black eyes and i am sure I’ll learn much more about my own failings, of which again there are many, but perhaps someone not included now will be included later and we’ll all be able to see a little further because of it.

Still Talking About it

Posted: February 12, 2013 in Uncategorized
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billboard-stuck_1116867i copy

 

I want to thank Bell Canada for their campaign Lets Talk and also recognize the work of companies such as Canada Post who ave been working on this for years but there is an issue here that we need to move past and act on it and not just talk about it.

Canada is the only G8 country that has no national mental health policy. The only one that has not said that the issues of mental illness,and their effects on our communities, are a top priority. In this Canada, for which we have so much to be proud of and celebrate, we are along way behind our G8 friends.

There have been countless reports, both at the federal and provincial levels, that lay out a variety of solid and thoughtful plans that could have real world impact on the day to day lives of those children and youth, the adults and families, the old and the young, that are affected by mental illness 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year.

We already know that it makes economic sense, the cost at some 50 billion a year, to attack this problem. We  already know this makes sense in terms of of our communities; the pressure on police, hospitals, community agencies, the courts, our schools, that are all burdened by the lack of coordination and resources to address the need. We already know that this makes sense for our children, youth, adults, and their families and know that suicide is the leading cause of non accidental death in Ontario.

We already know all this and have known for sometime now and still our representatives have not acted with enough will and assigned enough resources to change this reality.

I know families who have been wrecked by the effects of our lack of actions. I have seen talented and caring professionals become burned out by the ever increasing demand with out the resources to address it. I have personally lived through the revolving door of trying to understand a multi siloed system to get the service my child needs to succeed. Been there as my wife wept in frustration at another road block that didn’t need to be there. Been there as my child at the age of four told me she was the worst little girl in the world.

So while I am deeply grateful to see the tweets and Facebook posts and I stand and applaud Bell and their campaign we have to actually start doing something about it. Until this happens the people who live with these illnesses and the families and organizations that support them will be where we are today. Still talking about it while still living with it while still not having the means to move past it.

Left / Right and 0%

Posted: January 20, 2013 in London
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START:In the debate about around the 2013 Municipal Budget I have noted an ongoing debate on twitter and in person on the role of government and the efficiency/inefficiency  of government regarding the collection and spending of our tax dollars. This has most often come up for me when speaking about supporting those who are living near or below the poverty line or in the provision of service for things such as transit, bike lanes, or Library services.

In thinking about this there are a number of divides that surface.

One: Governments role should be limited to providing only the most basic of services and that the impact of the services should be minimal on the tax rates established by government.

Two: Government is always inefficient and therefore where the option is to have a private/for profit service deliver this it will be better for efficiency and for commerce.

Three: It is the responsibility of the individual to make their own success and wealth and that it is not the role of government to provide this.

Four: Economic development can only be enhanced if the municipality provides economic incentives for businesses to locate in London such as reduced servicing costs, tax incentives, and reduced buying costs for land.

At the heart of the argument is the divide between the philosophies of the “right”and those of the “left” but I actually think this is a false place to consider the issues of the 2013 budget from.

One: If Government at any level provides only the most basic of services then we end up with a number of issues that cannot be addressed by the private sector. The private sector is premised on the idea of creating profit , within the confines of supply and demand, for the services and products it sells. It will not be motivated by, for example, a need to provide health coverage for anyone who cannot afford it nor would private enterprise see a benefit in providing affordable housing. Government would be motivated to provide these services if it is the will of the electorate and in the public interest. We must also recognize that the cost of not providing service such as affordable housing is actually greater in the long run than not providing it. The costs to our health, policing, ambulance, mental health, and welfare systems is actually greater in the end. Of note is the impact government programs have on taxes. Staying with affordable housing a study by the State of Utah in 2003 showed “Another measure of economic impact is state and local taxes generated by the increase in income earnings. The estimated income, sales and property tax generated by affordable housing programs in 2003 was $20.4 million.  This estimate was derived by applying an effective state and local tax rate of 10.2% to the $200 million in income generated by affordable housing programs”

In looking at the previous example we can recognize that Government can provide a service, in this case affordable housing, that can have a positive net economic impact on a cities economic well-being. The same example can be applied to transit or bike lanes etc. if in providing a service there is a net benefit to the population government can and should act on it.

Two: The idea that government is always inefficient is a popular meme that emerges repeatedly as a justification for moving services to the private sector or not providing that service in the first place. We have to recognize the roles of each sector, government and business, to answer this question.

Economist  John T. Harvey in Forbes Magazine said the “question still stands: does it make sense to run government like a business? The short answer is no. Bear in mind, first, that “efficiency” in the private sector means profit. Hence, to ask that the government be run like a business is tantamount to asking that the government turn a profit. The problem in a nutshell, is that not everything that is profitable is of social value and not everything of social value is profitable.” and goes on to say “Those arguing for a business model for government must necessarily be ready to shut down all government functions that do not earn a profit, regardless of their contribution to our well-being.” .  It is also important to remember that the most disastrous economic calamity since the Great Depression  happened because of private business.  If we follow the idea that government needs to be efficient by responding to its citizens needs , maybe through the use of deliberative polling, but is the best way to serve the social good it may help us to focus where we should put our efforts in the 2013 municipal budget.

Three: We all love the idea of the rugged, self reliant, independently made individual and much of the idea of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps “ or “ the self-made man” is attractive we have to recognize that no one achieves success by themselves independent of any others help. If we look at Bill Gates for example we know, through books such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, that he had opportunities that others didn’t from access to early personal computers to the time on those computers “  this case Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule” to became an expert in developing software for them. Of course Mr. Gates was highly driven and created many opportunities for himself and Microsoft but even so he did not do this alone and we must recognize that if not for the generosity of some early supporters he would never have achieved his success. Should we not look at supporting those who are less fortunate the same way? If we provide the means for them to become housed, achieve a stable income, and access to training and education, could we not also be also helping to support another Bill Gates? And if not a Bull Gates how about a Bill the Plumber? Or Bill the Electrical Engineer? Or Bills kid the Doctor?

My point is that in assisting those who need our help we create a better overall outcome socially and economically for all of us. If we create the means where more Bills, or Beatrice’s for that matter , can succeed then we create a better social and economic well-being. In terms of the services we provide municipally this is an issue in the upcoming budget debate.

 Four: If we only look at economic development through the lens of tax relief and servicing we miss some other areas that may be of equal or greater benefit. it is no secret that I am a fan of Richard Florida and his thinking on economic development and the creative class argument. The greatest attraction for me to this thinking is that it is talent, not only a company or corporation, that makes economic development possible and through the attraction of talent we create opportunities for business and the municipality.

I view increasing our transit capacity and the development of bike lanes, pedestrian only areas, place making, and arts and culture as a means of economic development. The Arts and Heritage Councils working with the Creative Cities working group and through the London Culture office is about to present some new research on the impact of Arts and Culture on London’s economy and the results are staggering. The report, released to Council at the end of January , will show that these sectors have had significant impact on London’s economy.

By investing in these areas the municipality creates fertile ground to attract and retain talent to London that results in companies such as Digital Extremes or Voices.Com or The Uber Cool Store.

In and Article in Atlantic Cities Florida Quotes  William Fulton of Smart Growth America “This Millennial generation is the generation that decides where it’s going to live before it decides what it’s going to do.”. If we want this generation to decide London is the place where it’s going to live than we have to create the infrastructure for it to be attractive. Economic Development cannot only be seen through the lens of incentives for business but incentives for quality of life that attract the talent needed to support and create those businesses.

Finish: There is not a left or right to the above arguments but rather a how, where, and in which manner you want to live and by extension how you want your city, your London, to reflect those values. For me 0% does not offer enough of a balance of tax burden vs quality of life and quality of growth. The city we want to live in is in your hands and all you need do is express that during this important time of decisions. Share that view-point as I have shared mine here.

Maps

Posted: December 22, 2012 in Uncategorized
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“In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.”

― Ansel Adams

In between the time of Christmas Day and the rousing 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of New Years I invite you to understand what has gotten us to this point, where we are, and where we hope ourselves to be. No easy thing let me assure you but one worth the doing of if for no other reason than a map created will often point to a place uncharted.

I myself am guilty of being very comfortable in my view of the world and the right and wrong of things. This is not to say that there are not rights and wrongs, of course there are, but rather let me suggest a little shaking of your opinions and ideas and see what falls out of the tree. Perhaps a dead branch or two or even better some marvelous fruit that you have never tasted.

One exercise, somewhat masochistic and dangerous in potential self-indulgence, is to write down the 100 things I absolutely believe in. This exercise, shared with me by my dear friend Ken Brown, is an annual sojourn into my assumptions and more often than not reinforces some deeply held truth I have come to learn. One new belief I will consider between the bolded dates of the 25th and the 1st is the idea of infinity as an actual thing rather than a mental construct. This will be a tough one as the implications of it, if it gets added to my list, could be quite staggering. I’ll let you imagine why.

A smaller exercise I try to complete every new years day, potential hangover willing, is to write a list of where I want to be at the end of the new year. This isn’t a list of things I want to own or money I want to make but rather a list of things I hope I get better at. Things like loving my family and friends or maybe understanding something a little more clearly. Sometimes I succeed in doing this sometimes I don’t, but in creating the list it gives me something of a touchstone. Stones can be very comforting.

The point is friends that if there a chance to make things a little better by creating these maps why not do it. Better still create your own version noting your history, reflecting on it, and then charting a way forward. Just as we are about to enter the warm embrace of the holidays and feel the reflected glow of the love and warmth of family and friends consider then act on those considerations. To all I wish you the very best of holidays and the greatest success for the New Year.

Our shift is never over

Posted: December 4, 2012 in Uncategorized
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A really good friend of mine told me that you have to recognize where you are, honestly see your circumstances, before you can begin to make any change. For me, as a parent  of a child with mental illness, I now recognize that it is the parent, not the mental health system or those within it, who will always be the real professional caregiver while trying to be a parent. A 24hr/7 day a week job because the system is designed on a flawed premise and is under resourced.

Why do i feel this way?

Well I go to a monthly support group for parents with my wife for families with a child or a youth with a mental illness. In listening to the stories around that table for the last 10 years it has become an exercise in seeing, hearing,  and comforting the deep pain those parents feel at watching their children and families end up in a never ending series of crises. 

At a recent support meeting every parent at that table broke in to tears at some point expressing the fear, exhaustion, but mostly worry for the children they deeply love. One parent described a suicide attempt, the second in 3 months, by their teen child. This parent told us in the end they spent more time in the emergency room waiting for psychiatric care than receiving actually care and that after being admitted was called 12 hrs later to have the child picked up. The Parent asked “ so my child is cured?” and was told there is nothing more we can do. Another parent told the heartbreaking tale of being at an event to have their child lose control with phobias and anxiety in front of a full theatre on a special night for their other child. They went on to say that the family sometimes retreats to another room so they can have a break. Even the dog hides there to get away from the rages and ranting of the sick child. When they called for help they were told to wait for it to pass and of course it didn’t. They called back and were asked by a mental health worker “ Well what can I do about it? “.  Another parent related the tale of a crisis at school with their child. Rushing to the school he was told how the incident happened. School staff did not follow the plan, a plan that had been working, in order for the child to be successful. The result was the child in a rage in the middle of the classroom with police in attendance.The Parent had to take days off work to resolve the issue, went to the hospital and was told there wasn’t an issue that was deemed an emergency, was given a number for a crisis line, called, and was told that they needed to go to a certain community agency. They were already working with that agency. That night he received a call from children’s aid about his parenting. The parent is now being supervised.

I have heard hundreds of these stories. I have lived these stories hundreds of times and what is heartbreaking is that everyone of these parents fights hard and is an expert in getting resources for their child. If they were paid staff they would be amongst the most valuable an agency or hospital would have. 

So why is our system of care failing these families? My wife recently related a story where she was explaining the difference to a friend about mental health and the rest of the medical system. She said that if you have cancer there are two outcomes. You get better or you don’t and that it doesn’t matter if your doctor is a self centered ass or the most humane and loving person in the world. All that is important is that he or she knows how to properly administer the medications and treatments, reads the results, adjusts accordingly, and that as a result you will get better or not. Its an output – you get better or don’t. The family of the patient also can move on if they get better or worse. In a clinical setting a series of medical procedures will cure or not.  it’s a yes/no scenario, it’s measurement based. It’s about acting and seeing an effect that works or doesn’t. You operate or medicate, and your better or not. Easy to measure, follows the scientific method, is logical, makes sense. 

This is never the case though with mental illness or the families that support their loved ones. One person recently told me “ well at least if they had cancer they’d die or get better”. Not with Mental Illness.

Why though is this same system applied to how someone is feeling? How do we apply this system to a person who is hallucinating? How do we apply this system to someone who is feeling sad? How do we apply this system to someone who cannot control their day to day emotional state?

Medications you say? Well, they are helpful but the majority of these children and youth will try a huge variety of them before finding something that hopefully works for awhile. There are also side effects. My daughter has uncontrollable hand tremors for example. But these medications were often designed to treat something else like malaria, blood pressure, epilepsy, but were found to have an effect on mood/feeling.

But there is no pill that will make you feel content and emotionally well for the rest of your life. There is no medication that will make you a well adjusted and productive member of society. Doesn’t exist. Now don’t misunderstand me, medications can help but are not solutions in and of themselves. You need something more. You need support, and care, and most importantly love. You need a system of care and attention based upon love not an output. We are trying to heal how people are feeling not how much they are bleeding. 

Our system though doesn’t respond this way and the people who work for it are not allowed to respond in a human and loving way. They have to respond by following protocol and procedure. But what protocol or procedure can respond to a parent that is sobbing in-front of you because their child has tried to kill themselves for the 4 or 5th time? What procedure can meet the need of a youth who feels they are worthless and are guilty because they cannot control their rage or anxiety? What kind of professionalism can equip you to see a child overcome by phobia to the extent that they can’t leave a bathroom for hours? 

We need a system of human care that responds ,not with rules of who can be seen under what criteria, but one of empathy and sympathy and intensive support for the entire family. It is inhumane to force these parents and guardians to be professionals mental health workers 24/hrs a day 7 days a week and hold down jobs and support the home and do the laundry and make supper and make sure the child gets to school, and do the homework, and and and and and and and and and .The real professionals can go home at the end of the work day. For these children, youth, and parents their is never an end to the work day. Ever. We have created a system where the family can never stop asking for, pleading with, researching about, intervening in, and advocating for their loved one.

What is ironic about the workers in the current system of care is that the most effective and successful are the outliers. These are the doctors, youth workers, respite care workers, administrators, nurses, and case managers that respond with love and kindness and bend or break the rules.They respond as one human to another in pain and need. 

Until this becomes the system though it is the parents, the guardians, the families that have to take up the mantel of a professional mental health expert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.. Our shift is never over.

Solid Ground

Posted: October 20, 2012 in London, troubling deaf heaven
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We have gone through what seems to be an unending series of calamities and misfortunes that at times for me seems to shake the fabric of the world and I am left standing like a witness to a mugging. What was stolen was us, the collective we, and the ground we were standing on. The place where the crime happened is our forested city and perhaps like many bystanders we let this crime happen.

Our Annus horribilis began with racism on ice that fled to discrimination in a market which catapulted into park occupation in hopes of equality that was then dismantled which hurtled into the eroding of the middle class jobs, locked gates, and picket lines, that then staggered into the facts of increased poverty, lower employment, lack of opportunity for newcomers and new generations, that slid into the daily horror of bullying which finally sighed into the wavering of our belief in public office.

We also had moments and movements of hope this last year. Gatherings of the concerned and optimistic, heartfelt conversations over beer and coffee, presentations of excellence and inspiration, and revelries of who we are in dance, music, theatre, and words. These shared experience in twos and threes, hundreds and thousands, made the last year bearable when things seemed to have no chance of being better.

In the face of all this some come to the front to offer a way forward and drop out of site when they cannot find consensus, some are tenacious and keep iterating and creating, hoping that the next time the combination of idea, people, and place will coalesce into a magic moment and it will all come together. The majority will stand on the sidelines and remain mute hoping for a brighter day.

It is to all of you that I am writing this. I am writing because i believe that in order to know where you are going you have to recognize where you are and where you have been. I have been in places of bright optimism and bleak pessimism. In places where I have been comforted and have offered comfort. In places of screaming in rage and in places of counseling clam and tolerance. And it is in that we find the rub dear reader.

We are in a time and place of wild swings of intention and action, of inattention and inaction, of tolerance and rage, of expectation, hope, cynicism , decay and rebirth. We have no solid ground to stand upon and survey where we are and what we are doing, and know not where or who we want be today or tomorrow.  We are ricocheted around these times like rubber balls on concrete walls and we are left unstable.

We have lost the old solid footing of community institutions like churches, clubs, political parties, and often the comforting familiarity of community, neighbor and family. If this is the case then we must build new institutions on the old or rebuild that which has crumbled. Organization that do the work now that was once the purview of government and who work for the common good should come together and buttress each other, standing forward as places for community to grow from. Our institutions of higher learning can no longer look inside their own walls or so far beyond them thy the cannot see the people living around them. We live just outside the doors. Collective recognition of old institutions like churches should begin because they are the ones feeding and caring for the most untouchable and unloved amongst us and do this despite our growing disbelief and distrust in them.

Those with voices clear and strong need to step forward now and take up the reins of leadership in our community with the pledge that they will restore our faith in the offices of political power but with the understanding in their marrow that all of that power is derived from the people who live around them. They must pledge to never shun the input for those that gave them this great gift of trust and pledge that they will work tirelessly, not for themselves, but for us and our collective hope for a better place to be and live.

If we do this then we shore up the ground we are standing on and have a stable place to build upon and to look out at the world. If we decide to do this then we must not only point out what is wrong but point out how to make it right.

This is not about policy or party but rather it is about belief. The belief that we can achieve anything if we have the collective will to do so and that if we chose to, we can stand together again on solid ground.

Trolls, Banning, and Openness – Oh My!

Posted: August 6, 2012 in Uncategorized
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Over the last few weeks there has been an increasing war of words on twitter. This happens with some regularity on twitter in London. We use twitter a lot in the forested city and there are some, me included, who use it to argue points hard. The problem is that can sometimes devolve into name calling. Today, Elaine Murray, aka @emlaughsallot88 on twitter, the frequent comments poster on almost all London Free Press articles, has had her account suspended.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that Twitter banned her for spamming or abusive behavior. Twitter says, “Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:

  • If a large number of people are blocking you;
  • The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you
  • If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #.“

The above may indicate some of the reasons why her account was suspended but there is an underlying issue here that I think needs some airing.

Over the last four or five months there have been a number of posts by a number of folks about blocking people on twitter, about hearing everyone’s opinions, and about being more inclusive in hearing differing viewpoints. This is all laudable and I agree with these points in principle. BUT they should not become shackles to enduring personal attacks or in continuing to hear viewpoints when they are argued only to inflame and lower the conversation. I have seen this behavior in Elaine’s arguments with Megan Walker last week, and I have seen a number of people go after Glen Pearson, and many others in personal attacks and innuendo a number of times. This is an ongoing behavior pattern.

The problem is that in the argument about being open and fair and hearing everyone’s opinion, there must come a point when we recognize that these arguments are only about creating a climate of hostility and attack. At that point, I draw the line and move on. I block and at times report for spam or abusive behavior. I have not done this for Elaine but have for some others.

Now some will argue that the “left” gang up on the “right” on twitter or that a group of “like-minded” people will bully the others who disagree. That this “left” group is not open to debate and discussion. I don’t buy that argument for one simple reason. It is a choice to debate or to devolve, and in my opinion many of the people I am talking about  choose to devolve and lower the conversation with innuendo and attack.

Do I want to see honest, respectful, and open debate stifled? No, absolutely not. Do I want to see people banned from participating? No, absolutely not. Will I engage with someone who continually devolves the conversation to juvenile name calling. No, absolutely not.

In our need to be seen to be fair and open and engaged we must recognize that there are some that prefer inflaming to engaging and at that point I block and will often defend others who are being attacked. I don’t feel sorry for Elaine at all, though there is a freedom of speech line here,and have no guilt what so ever about calling out those who crash the conversation just to inflame the debate. Fairness and openness is important to me but it must not become a cudgel to allow abuse and derision to occur unanswered or without consequence. Engagement is about the conversation not about scoring points.

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