Living With Trauma: The Healers, 42

We're all screwed. I think this goes without saying, but I thought I'd say it anyway. We are all terribly damaged, defiled, ruined, incomplete, wounded, and you know something else, Gentle Reader? We're such bloody, shameless liars about our sad and sorry condition. Ever since our ancestors left Africa, we have been ruining the planet, other species, and by extension, ourselves and one another. There really seems to be no end to our hubris. Moving back from the macrocosm to the microcosm I would like to comment on some recent events in my work as a mental health peer support worker, namely, my communications with the government about securing a raise for people in my position to a living wage. I finally did get an answer but first I will copy here in full my recent email to the minister of health: "First let me say that I am very disappointed that you still have not responded to any of my emails about the need for raising the wages of mental health peer support workers to a living wage.  Your silence suggests that this is not a particularly important issue to you, and perhaps there is some underlying stigma there against people who live with mental health issues.  As we are now rolling into Christmas I would like to inform you that as a contract worker, I am not getting paid for Christmas or Boxing Day.  Yet, I am still required to take both those days off, while losing income, at a time of year when one least wants to or should be expected to have to find themselves short of money.  It is like this for all statutory holidays.  We are not allowed to work.  And we don't get paid.  Neither do we get coverage for dental work or other medical benefits.  And vacation pay? Don't make me laugh.  There is a modest provision for sick pay, but that is up to the discretion of our supervisor, and not all our supervisors in mental health work are equally compassionate or understanding.  May I remind you, that we have been stuck at this miserably low wage for the past nine years.  Vancouver is an obscenely expensive city to live in and not all of us have the benefit of government subsidized housing.  I have coworkers who have to subsist on market rents at the mercy of unscrupulous and greedy landlords.  There are others, like me, who have to rely entirely or almost entirely on our scant earnings as peer support workers in order to stay alive.  For us this is barely survival work. I feel disappointed and betrayed by you and your government.  I doubt that I will ever support the (your political party) again, under any circumstances.  I hope that my disenchantment will not discourage you from looking into our situation and doing what you can to persuade our employer, to start paying us a living wage, especially considering that now we are being paid but sixty-five cents above the minimum. Peer Support Workers give better than bang for the taxpayers` buck already, given the essential role we play in people`s mental health recovery, and the millions of dollars in hospital care that we save you people, by helping our clients stay well and stable. It is time to pay us what we are worth, and that is going to be considerably more than twelve dollars an hour. I am counting on you to do the right and ethical thing. I expect to hear from you soon." I got a response the next day, not from the health minister but from their assistant. I was congratulated for sticking it out, reassured that the government is looking into the way peer support workers are trained, paid and integrated into the workplace, then told that I should not be talking to them, but to my employer about a pay raise, or, "Go ask your mother." My Reply? "Thank you for your reply.  First off, level and quality of training should only be used as a measure for remuneration up to a certain point.  However, when the pay is as low as twelve dollars an hour, this needs to be attended to as soon as possible, and should not have to be indexed to training or education but to a just and living wage, or to put it succinctly, we also have to live.  In terms of addressing my employer, I am in regular contact with one of my supervisors, who is also communicating to their superiors, and they are also supportive of my communicating these needs to the health minister.  I agree that further training and education would be beneficial to peer support workers, but a living wage needs to be in place, as a  matter of justice and simple logic as we will be better equipped to take care of our own needs, making us better and more effective workers. thank you for your prompt reply and have a merry Christmas" and " There is one other detail I would like to mention.  I have been addressing my employers about our pay situation for several years now, without result. and lots of excuses, stonewalling and even threats to my employment.  This is why I am resorting to talking to the ministry.  As a token of their concern, the Ministry of Health might consider taking action on this important matter as it is not helpful to be left feeling that the buck is somehow being passed.  I do hope that you people show that you care about this.  Thanks." Now, Gentle Reader, tell me please, again, what is the difference between the health minister and his lackeys, myself and other peer support workers, our clients who are still suffering from mental health diagnoses, and the union staff I work with? Absolutely nothing. We are all human, which makes us equally damaged. Some are more socially acceptably damaged, others less so. There is still no difference. Only stigma. We're all screwed. We all have a role to play in our healing.