From Facebook: Mary Lou
Yesterday I found out that I’m losing my dream job 💔
By the end of this school year, my team no longer exists under the new UCP education budget. I am a Mental Health Therapist (Peace Collaborative Services - PCS) for kindergarten to grade 12 students.
I’ve never felt this strongly connected to a job before. My heart is so invested and I come home every day feeling so blessed and fulfilled ... ask my husband who puts up with the chronic mushiness when he asks about my day!
It’s an incredible role and so many students rely on these services. Parents often have difficulty taking time out of their work day to take their child to a mental health appointment.
To pay out of pocket for 50 minutes of counselling is roughly $140-200 in Canada. Currently many parents can access PCS services, for free, during school hours. On average I spend 1 hour in a counselling session, and will happily go over if my kiddos need extra support.
Some parents live in remote areas and don’t have the resources to take their children into town for services. Perhaps their remote town doesn’t have many or any mental health services.
I can see many of these students easily, as the school bus brings them to school, where they can engage in counselling, occupational therapy, speech therapy and so forth.
My collaborative multi-disciplinary team learned about this heartbreaking, impending loss yesterday.
Our soon unemployed, VERY large team consists of Mental Health Therapists, Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Pathologists, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consultants, and Physical Therapists.
It’s been amazing to apply a multi-disciplinary lens to students. Pairing an Occupational Therapist, Psychologist and Mental Health Therapist together to do targeted work on a students anxiety or depression can be much more effective than having just one of these services.....
.... supporting the student. Each professional brings a different lens and specialized service.
I hope Alberta school districts can figure something out moving forward - the wellness of our students was already in need of more supports (in my perspective).
They have a new funding model for 2020-21 school year and I wish each district nothing but success as they navigate what to do with the dollars. I wish it didn’t come at the expense of dismantling a huge team of soon to be unemployed professionals.
Perhaps a miracle will happen and the districts will try to keep a collaborative group intact, and this has all been a nightmare my colleagues and I can wake up from.
As a social worker practicing in Northern Alberta since 2012 and as a resident, I’ve seen the social problems in my community increase drastically. The ongoing opioid crisis, homelessness, mental health waitlists, transiency and lack of community investment....
.... child protection job freezing, overflowing volumed caseloads, social service agency closures, domestic and family violence, substance dependency, prenatal exposure of substances to babies in the womb,....
.... women experiencing violence while pregnant also causing prenatal trauma for baby, lack of foster and kinship homes, self harm, poverty, unemployment, bankruptcy, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and suicide (to name the top few).
My heart breaks, especially for the children. So many little humans with big worries and increasingly complex needs.
Although I’m devastated, and have no idea what my next steps are, I don’t regret the decision to do this role. It has brought me so much joy and warmth ♥️
A little one telling me how happy they are because they aren’t experiencing thoughts of suicide anymore; a little one filled with excitement to tell me how they are confidently learning to cope with panic attacks;
....a little one who takes a big sigh, and says they are starting to accept they cannot control the actions of others, only themselves.
Watching the healing journey begin, as walls come down, and vulnerability comes out.
Healing begins when we feel safe, connected and respected enough to share our story.
Every minute with these children and teenagers has been an absolute privilege that I will always hold in my heart.
#UcpCuts #UcpCorruption #JasonKenney @jkenney @RachelNotley @JanisIrwin @MarieFrRenaud @albertaNDP @abndpcaucus @AlbertaLiberals @Alberta_UCP @UCPCaucus #SaveOurDoctors #SaveOurNurses #SaveOurFrontLineWorkers #SaveOurHealthcare #SaveOurProvince #AbLeg #Abpoli #Abgov #Abhealth
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