Tag Archives: mental health

What Causes Homelessness ?

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People who experience homelessness are not distinct and separate from the rest of the population. In fact, the line between being housed and unhoused is quite fluid. In general, the pathways into and out of homelessness are neither linear nor uniform. Individuals and families who experience homelessness may not share much in common with each other, aside from the fact that they are extremely vulnerable, and lack adequate housing and income and the necessary supports to ensure they stay housed. The causes of homelessness reflect an intricate interplay between structural factors, systems failures and individual circumstances. Homelessness is usually the result of the cumulative impact of a number of factors, rather than a single cause.

Structural factors

Structural factors are economic and societal issues that affect opportunities and social environments for individuals. Key factors can include the lack of adequate income, access to affordable housing and health supports and/or the experience of discrimination. Shifts in the economy both nationally and locally can create challenges for people to earn an adequate income, pay for food and for housing.

Poverty

Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. People who are impoverished are frequently unable to pay for necessities such as housing, food, childcare, health care, and education. Poverty can mean a person is one illness, one accident, or one paycheque away from living on the streets.

Housing

A critical shortage of housing that is affordable, safe and stable directly contributes to homelessness. The millions of Canadian families and individuals living in “core need” (paying more than 50% of their income on housing) are at serious risk of homelessness, as are families and individuals spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Arguably, the most impactful factor is the lack of affordable housing nationwide; however, discrimination can impede access to employment, housing, justice and helpful services. Racial and sexual minorities are at greater risk of such discrimination.

System failures

Systems failures occur when other systems of care and support fail, requiring vulnerable people to turn to the homelessness sector, when other mainstream services could have prevented this need. Examples of systems failures include difficult transitions from child welfare, inadequate discharge planning for people leaving hospitals, corrections and mental health and addictions facilities and a lack of support for immigrants and refugees.

Personal circumstances and relational problems

Individual and relational factors apply to the personal circumstances of a person experiencing homelessness, and may include: traumatic events (e.g. house fire or job loss), personal crisis (e.g. family break-up or domestic violence), mental health and addictions challenges (including brain injury and fetal alcohol syndrome), which can be both a cause and consequence of homelessness and physical health problems or disabilities. Relational problems can include family violence and abuse, and addictions, so looking for rehab centers is important, click here to learn more.

published by the homeless hub http://www.homelesshub.ca

Employment Apps ( The New Gig Work )

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If you go to the Google Play store and search for employment gig applications, you’ll see an ever increasing number of them. So, being the Urban Survivor that we are, we tried them out in a real world test situation, that and we needed money which in case they are a viable option.

There’s quite a list , and they do work, but there is work and then there’s the quality of work. Life is so quick and fast now, you miss one paycheck and you’re out on the street, so you do what you have to… you serve the devil to pay the priest ( which makes no sense ).

The gig apps all vary in “realness”. We got a few job referrals and chased down two or so. We also work with a few real world temp agencies ( work is work ) the applications are cool, except you need that human contact which some if not most of the apps do have.

They figured that out ( there’s got to be a human on the other end to empathize ) if not, there’s no sense of commitment or loyalty. i.e. If I don’t go to a job booked through an app without the human contact element there’s no ” I must fulfill an obligation ” component. The human element we’re becoming so unused to.

We found that most of them don’t really have a lot to offer, and are unforgiving if you miss a booking. One charges a 3+ dollar fee to pay you as per their own t.o.s . It is “new” these temp employment agency apps. How will they do? One has already run afoul of the immigration folk in Canada.

Things have not changed all that much as far as the worker is concerned.

The apps serve their purpose but are vulnerable to abuse, first the information you send them about yourself, your social security number etcetera, companies not located in N. America are collecting this information from consumers, who submit it without a thought.

We have to work, one way or another it’s what kind of work? you do that will dictate how happy you are in your life.

Should The Poor Procreate?

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Should The Poor Procreate?

Nearly three quarters of all people in poverty are parents, and more than 40 percent of children live below the poverty line in families where at least one parent works full-time, year-round. Poverty also has significant consequences for child development, not to mention education and health statutory results throughout the life cycle of a child.

Given these findings, there’s been an ongoing discussion on whether or not families living in poverty should have children. The question has been posed numerous times with no definitive answer; however, there are solid arguments both for and against the idea of procreation among the poor.

Is it right to have kids when you are poor?
A common question among parents is can we afford to have kids? Well, a new study says if you’re poor it may not be right to have kids. Research suggests children born into low-income families are more likely to stay in low-income families, creating what experts call an intergenerational cycle of poverty. So having children when you are poor may not be right after all.


People who procreate have a responsibility to ensure that their children will never be poor. If they can’t do that, they shouldn’t make the poor decision of bringing more people into poverty. This logic has merit and deserves consideration; however, there are solid arguments both for and against the idea of procreation among the poor. There are many moral questions that should be asked when deciding if it is acceptable to create a child in poverty.

Does it matter how many kids a person has if they are poor?
That depends on who you ask. Most people would say, yes, it does matter if a person is poor and has kids. Someone who can barely feed their own kids let alone buy them clothes or get them medical attention is not fit to raise children. If there are already too many impoverished people in society, having more kids will only make things worse.

Hello, Happy New Year !

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The year started off on many lows, the loss of some notable celebrities,’ as well as millions of anon. not “known people” since we can’t mention them all, we’ll say rest in peace to the many whom have shed this mortal coil to ascend to a higher plane of existence where the body will no longer feel sensations that plaque the human mind, but a freedom, the kind that will never be found encased in this delicate shell of flesh and blood.

Boggles Brown – The Blurb

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-From “Boggles Brown – My Cartoon Life in the Land Of Schizophrenia” inner sleeve. – 2010

Boggles Brown is broke, except for the “People With Disabilities Allowance” he gets once a month. This month, he lives in a run-down motel – he manages to buy an old beat-up Toyota which is unreliable but reliable if you know what I mean. Somtimes he thinks his car may be bi-polar.

He wonders whether he should be using one of those fancy-named gasoline additives like “Engine-X,” I imagine “Engine-X” to be somewhat like Olanzapine, only for cars.

Boggles Brown struggled through college. He graduated,worked for a while and then became bonkers. It was not worth the ecstacy or all the raves in the world to lose his mind – he knows that now. But it is his life, what to do?

Boggles Brown is not how I see myself so much, as how I think others see me. My mom has read some of my cartoons and scratched her head. I imagine a lot of people will do the same. But that’s not the point – is it? Am I Canada’s Andy Warhol? I think not.

I hope you like Boggles, and if you don’t, I hope you keep it to yourself because the point is that it gave me something to do.

These are all hand-drawn on whatever paper I could find.

– Boggles Brown; “BJAF” 2010

“Genes” – Boggles Brown; Urban Survival Media 2009

Exclusive Boggles Brown T-Shirts Online

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Browse and bedazzle when you wear the words of our talkative transient.

Greetings Readers,

Now, like never before, we have been waiting for a marketing breakthrough to gain that glimmer of interactivity on it’s way to your wardrobe. It’s here – Boggles Brown multi-colour T-Shirts where you get to write the dialogue for our lovable but lunatic street-sage.

https://www.slated.com/films/736655

Drop by and donate to give the My Name Is Brad docudrama the funding it needs and order a Boggles Brown exclusive hand drawn T-Shirt by local artist Brad James.

Stay Safe and Think of B. Brown When You’re Feeling Down.

– The Crew At The Urban Survivor and My Name Is Brad

B.C.’s new vision

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B.C.’s new vision for mental health and addictions care

A Pathway to Hope: A roadmap for making mental health and addictions care better for people in British Columbia  charts a course to an improved future for health and well-being in B.C. 

This new strategy lays out government’s 10-year vision for mental health and substance use care, in which people living in B.C.’s mental health and well-being are supported from youth to adulthood and programs and services are available to tackle challenges early on. You can also click here for more information.

It also identifies priority actions the government will be taking over the next three years to help people experiencing mental health or substance use challenges right now, to promote wellness and prevent existing problems from getting worse. This roadmap of both short and long-term changes to B.C.’s mental health and the private addiction treatment care system is based on four pillars:

  • Wellness promotion and prevention
  • Seamless and integrated care
  • Equitable access to culturally safe and effective care
  • Indigenous health and wellness

A Pathway to Hope is a plan to begin transforming B.C.’s mental health and substance use service system from its current crisis-response approach to a system based on wellness promotion, prevention and early intervention where people are connected to culturally safe and effective care when they need it. At its heart, it represents a new way forward for B.C. built on compassion, care and the perspectives of people with lived experience of mental health and substance use challenges, that breaks down barriers and meets people where they’re at.

#mentalhealth #addiction #mentalwellbeing #peaceofmind #bccanada