The Wrong End of the Stick
The fiscal reality of HIV/AIDS in the richest province in Canada
Robert Wm. Smith
reprinted with permission by the author
I feel a rant coming on. It is difficult to hold it all back sometimes. While there is much in my life to be thankful for, all around me there is lots to get really pissed off about.
Sherry McKibben, HIV Edmonton's Executive Director stated this week that the proposed private members bill called the Blood Samples Act is an example of the government of Alberta using the "wrong end of the stick" in its attempt at protecting emergency services, police and corrections employees from becoming infected with HIV, HEP B and C in the commission of their duties. It's the wrong end of the stick because what they need to be doing is funding education programs that would have a greater long-term effect at protecting these folk.
We are living in quite a time. This week, both the Governments of Canada and Alberta put out their election style budgets covered in enough veneer to repave the much acclaimed highway of prosperity we are supposedly on.
It may be my tendency to side with the underdog, the down trodden and the helplessly underserved; and, it may be the bleeding heart socialist leaning context within which I observe governments, but in my view there is treachery afoot. The priorities of election budgets are blatantly obvious and the lack of short and long-term benefit to the homeless and disenfranchised is also blatantly obvious.
There is a stench to the assertions, for example that the health care system is gobbling up our future, that it will out spend our ability to pay the bills and that our children will be left holding the bag. There is an equally smelly emission from education, social services, and basically every human services department whose role it is to prevent vast numbers of our citizenry from falling through the cracks. Wake up folks, if the system isn't adequately funded and our citizens cared for and if stopgap approaches to human misery prevail, the cracks will widen to consume us all.
HIV Edmonton serves a large clientele that has fallen through not one crack but several; and in that service, HIV Edmonton and others like it are falling through the cracks. Governments have downloaded responsibility for core services to community-based organizations. They then set up funding formulas, not based on the perceived need or recognized crisis, but based on floating the corporate sector with sufficient tax luxury to house every single homeless and starving Albertan. The Alberta government has forsaken core services in order that it may claim a false glory of paying down our piddling provincial debt. The fiscal report card might look great in the corporate sector, but who's paying the price. How can we claim a surplus in oil and gas revenues when there is so much unfunded need. Again, they are using the wrong end of the stick.
HIV Edmonton and other AIDS Service Organizations throughout Alberta have continually felt the pressure of rapidly depleting dollars in the health care and social service sectors. It is happening again with the new budgets for the next three-year funding cycle of every member organization of the Alberta Community Council on HIV (ACCH) sharing less dollars across the board. We are finding it increasingly more difficult to do our work with less money. We are continually re-adjusting our staff to fit the drop in dollars. Three positions have been eliminated in the past 12 months; not because there is no work in those areas, there is always lots of work, but because there is no money to pay the people needed to do the work. So it just doesn't get done and women and youth and mental health and ethno-cultural communities are underserved. We are being forced to use the wrong end of the stick.
Yes, we can compete for project dollars; however project dollars are just that. The focus is often narrow and the timelines short. You can have the best of intentions, skill sets and most effective programs funded under project dollars. What you don't get is sustainability. Most programs started in HIV/AIDS related work undergo the same tragic reality of having to shut down at the end of a one, two or three year funding cycle; and any benefit that may have been realized from their existence is dramatically lost.
The Gay Men's Outreach Crew (GMOC) is a prime example. It has had an on again, off again existence since it's inception. The Gay and Lesbian Community Centre of Edmonton (GLCCE) though not HIV/AIDS focused, is another. The reality for GLCCE is much more acute. There is no money, there is no staff and there are few services available. The new interim board struggles to keep some entity alive in our community against some very big odds. I wish them luck, it won't be easy.
HIV/AIDS is not a pretty cause; it doesn't have the sex appeal that many causes do. The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS directly impacts our ability to do our work. Last month I wrote about the impact of homophobia on the gay and lesbian community and particularly on HIV/AIDS in our community. The stigma faced by those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS finds its roots in the social and fiscal discrimination experienced by our homeless, highly addicted, populations as well.
Homeless isn't sexy either, nor is addictions, or mental illness, or any of the issues faced by most or our clientele. And when it's not sexy, there is little interest in funding or sponsorship. HIV/AIDS fundraisers do not enjoy the same success experienced by the great galas and silent auctions that bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for Kids Cottage or Ronald MacDonald House or political parties. HIV/AIDS fundraisers do not attract the upper echelon of corporate Alberta or their political friends.
Government under funding of community-based social and health service organizations and turning a blind eye to the realities of poverty, addictions, mental illness, homelessness and extreme vulnerability is using the wrong end of the stick in service delivery. Illnesses like HIV/AIDS that thrive on these conditions will continue to decimate families and communities unless some attention is paid, now. The Alberta Government and the Canadian Government are not paying attention.
