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September 22, 2010 Presenters: Jeanette Blair, June Horton, and Christine Sevigny

Recovery in a Boarding Home: Community Crisis or Living Well in the Community?. September 22, 2010 Presenters: Jeanette Blair, June Horton, and Christine Sevigny . Introductions. Jeanette Blair June Horton Christine Sevigny. COTA Health.

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September 22, 2010 Presenters: Jeanette Blair, June Horton, and Christine Sevigny

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  1. Recovery in a Boarding Home: Community Crisis or Living Well in the Community? September 22, 2010 Presenters: Jeanette Blair, June Horton, and Christine Sevigny

  2. Introductions • Jeanette Blair • June Horton • Christine Sevigny

  3. COTA Health COTA Health is an accredited provider of mental health and community support services. Our programs provide support to adults living with serious mental illness, geriatric mental health conditions, acquired brain injury, developmental disabilities and dual diagnosis.

  4. COTA Health Our services include case management, supportive housing, short-term residential beds, a day program, court and justice related services and outreach to individuals who are homeless or living in shelters.

  5. Vision Statement A supportive and inclusive society in which all people have equal opportunity to live, thrive and enjoy the full benefits of belonging within their communities.

  6. Mission Statement Our mission is to support people to overcome the various personal and societal challenges that they may face as a result of living with a mental health challenge...

  7. Mission Statement ...geriatric mental health condition, developmental disability, dual diagnosis, acquired brain injury and/or the experience of homelessness.

  8. Values Hope We support people to find hope and inspiration in their inherent strengths and in pursuing goals that they identify as being important to them.

  9. Values Respect We are respectful of each individual’s dignity, unique experience, potential and rights.

  10. Values Collaboration We approach our work believing that the best solutions stem from collaborative approaches.

  11. Values Innovation We are committed to innovation as a means to achieving positive outcomes.

  12. Values Dedication We are dedicated to providing the highest quality service possible.

  13. Values Accountability We are accountable for providing our services with professionalism and integrity.

  14. The Boarding Home Program Our Staff • Site Support • Case Managers • Peer Specialists

  15. The Boarding Home Program Our Services • Social and recreational activities • Individual support • Support through shared lived experience

  16. The Boarding Home Program • In partnership with Habitat Services • 35 boarding homes in downtown Toronto • 750 tenants living with mental health and other challenges

  17. The Boarding Home Program Recovery “Recovery is a process, not a place. It is about recovering what was lost: rights, roles, responsibilities, decisions, potential and support.

  18. The Boarding Home Program It is not about symptom elimination, but about what an individual wants, how s/he can get there, and how others can help/support them to get there.” - Laurie Curtis

  19. The Boarding Home Program ARAO “...a way of being in the world that confronts all aspects of injustice and inequality within society’s institutions...

  20. The Boarding Home Program ARAO ...systems and practices, and is intended to understand and eradicate racism and oppression in all its forms.”

  21. The Presentation • What we are talking about • Why we are talking about it • Who we talked to, and who we didn’t • The goals and limits of the presentation

  22. The Agenda Prison, Asylum, Community • A critical look at the past to contextualize boarding homes as mental health housing

  23. The Agenda Community Crisis, “Crazy Houses”, Contracts • A critical look at the place of boarding homes in the community following deinstitutionalization

  24. The Agenda Housing as a Human Right • An exploratory discussion of the problems and how these may/may not relate to the mix of boarding homes as businesses and non-profit recovery services in housing

  25. The Agenda Part I Video of Tenant Interviews • Tenant perspectives on boarding home life in their own words

  26. The Agenda Locating The Balance • The potential for boarding homes to be either/both illness or wellness environments in recovery

  27. The Agenda Recovery • A discussion of support and accountability for recovery at a systemic, organizational, and individual level simultaneously

  28. The Agenda Part II Video Tenant Interviews • The views of tenants regarding recovery, the help/hindrance of boarding homes in recovery, and suggestions about changes to boarding homes Questions and Dialogue

  29. The Past: Critical History

  30. Toronto Central Prison circa 1873

  31. Prison Era • “Idiots”, “imbeciles”, and “lunatics” • “Moral treatment” or “humanitarian approach” (pre-1900s)

  32. Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Queen Street West, circa 1849

  33. Age of Asylum/Institution • Institutionalization (1900-1960) • Rise of psychiatry and “scientific approach”

  34. Community Care • The hope of support and housing in the community for ex-patients

  35. The Present

  36. Community Crisis • The realities of deinstitutionalization • Precarious housing for low-income singles on skid row, in flophouses, and rooming homes • Boarding homes on the map • Homelessness and poverty confronting consumer/survivors

  37. “Crazy Houses” “I don’t stop, don’t come back to vulnerable plaster, except when I leave the room to use the second-floor bathroom, an ugly precursor to the rest of the house. I haven’t extinguished the bare bulb in my room since I moved into the house. Now I’m afraid it will burn out, leaving me alone in the dark, at the mercy of scurrying things.” - Pat Capponi, Upstairs in the Crazy House, 1992

  38. “Crazy Houses” • Concerns raised about boarding home conditions • Voice of consumer/survivor movement • Parkdale community in Toronto

  39. Contracts • Boarding home operations, “basket of services”, and staffing • Boarding Home Program, created 1981 • Recognized need for support in the community for boarding home tenants • Habitat established in 1987 • Monitoring, standards, and improvement

  40. Housing as a Human Right • For-profit housing in the Canadian context - business philosophies • The rise of social housing to address homelessness and poverty • The efforts of supportive, alternative, and other non-profit housing providers – non-profit philosophies

  41. Housing as a Human Right “Most of the operators see the tenants as if the tenants are not paying their own money. They don’t see them as important – like they don’t deserve the same rights and respect...They don’t see they are the same as other tenants in the community.” - Anonymous Service-Provider

  42. Housing as a Human Right • Attitudes and personal values of owner/operators vary, but power of eviction remains with the landlord • Coercion and control – culture of fear in the boarding homes • Is the custodial model ever benign? • Transinstitutionalization

  43. Housing as a Human Right “...for-profit businesses should not be charged with care of vulnerable people” - Anonymous Service-Provider

  44. Housing as a Human Right “The business practices the nonprofit embraces to assure its survival threaten to undermine its culture, mission, and public image. In an effort to save its bottom line, the modern nonprofit risks losing its soul.” - Bill Landsberg, The Nonprofit Paradox: For-Profit Business Models in the Third Sector

  45. Part I – Video Tenant Interviews on Living in a Boarding Home

  46. Balancing Acts Illness Environment Wellness Environment Person Centred Support Capacity Empowerment Individuality Choice Community Human Rights/Citizenship • Illness Centred • Care Taking • Dependency • Maintaining • Conformity • Compliance • Isolation • Oppression

  47. Balancing Acts • Locating housing, ourselves, and our organizations in the balance between illness and wellness environments as a condition of recovery • External conditions of recovery include human rights, healing, and recovery-oriented services

  48. HOPE

  49. Recovery “Recovery has been viewed as taking place at a number of different levels: the individual who is recovering from mental illness; the service organization that is supporting individuals in their recoveries; and the system level – the policies that have to be in place to support a recovery-oriented system.” - Vahe Kehyayan, Mental Health and Patients Rights in Ontario: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

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