Efficiencies?

When I think of finding efficiencies I think of finding methods to maintain or improve a service in a more timely and cost effective manner. When our governments do so they think of how to punish those most in need even further than they have already.

The latest such "efficiency" is the McGuinty governments decision to close  the Thistletown Regional Centre, a refuge of last resort for families dealing with loved ones who require complex care for developmental issues. Most of the people served by Thistletown have been through the system bouncing from one program unable to deal with their special needs to another, until that is they were fortunate enough to find a space at Thistletown. Now that the Ontario government is closing down this highly successful program the families it served so well will see their loved ones shunted back into a system that has failed them time and time again. Efficiencies.

“I don’t believe, not for a minute, that behind the closing are ‘good intentions’ to integrate clients into communities. These clients cannot be integrated. They do outings and trips and leisure activities, but they need highly structured and unique environments where they live.’’ 

We saw an efficiency of this type back in the seventies when the Davis government decided to de-insitutiionalize the mentally ill sold in much the same way, re-integrating them back into the community. We now see the population of the mentally ill exploding in our prisons . This is once more a cost saving exercise sold as a caring solution to a complex problem once again punishing those least able to fight back. Efficiencies

Even if a group home were to be found, what happens if they say, ‘It’s not working out’?” she asks. “Where does he go? I can’t take him home. Sometimes he needs four people to hold him when he has an anger outburst.’’

To make matters worse the families have been kept out of the loop having been rebuffed in their request for a general meeting, further exacerbating their levels of confusion and anxiety.
If we continue to find  efficiencies of this type we will  efficiently destroy what is left of civil society and the Canada I love and desire.