False Efficiency: Are Human Services Losing Their Huamanity

 

"I can tell you there were a couple of times when you would say to yourself, 'This is a slam dunk for denial,' until the human walked in," said George Sapp, who lives near Halifax.  "Then you would see the person that's attached to the file.  And sometimes it took you back.  And you listened."

 

 

It is absolutely true that our current model of public service delivery is unsustainable.  Too much money is being spent to help too few.  While many who need help are falling through the cracks.

 

The general solution being provided these days is reduce the amount of service being provided.  This comes as more claims being denied and less services being funded.  We're in this crazy place where "efficiency experts" who are good at cutting, not catalyzing shared solutions, are being paid ridiculous sums of money to cut back on the number of days a patient can stay in a bed or whether an individual with complex needs fits the narrow parameters of existing programs.

 

It's crazy.

 

Refugees are being denied healthcare if they aren't seen as "legitimate", being left to rot in institutional abysses.  Seniors without pension plans are being told to fend for themselves.  Youth are being told to become sales experts, on top of everything else, and somehow force employers to hire them.  Employers love their contract positions and interns, because they're less expensive.

 

It's just business, they say, cribbing mob movies of the 80s.

 

What we have is a system that is bleeding itself of humanity in a poor attempt to right the ship, but in reality, what's happening is those already marginalized are becoming even more marginalized as those who already have can use new excuses not to spend.  The bean counters (or economists) are looking at people strictly as consumers and taking a Randian, laissez-faire approach to service provision.  Unless you're paying, the message goes, we're not here for you, so smarten up.

 

They may think they're being clever, but they're actually fueling a structural weakening that will, if nothing changes, bring society crashing down around us as happened once upon a time in Russia.

 

It's very unlikely we'll come to that, though, for the same reason society has always grown forward - not thanks to the salesmen or power-hungry, but due to the selfless dedication of people at all levels who really believe that we're stronger when we work together.

 

People like Richard Pietro aren't making money, bringing the word to every corner of Canada any more than community advocates are turning down opportunities to make a difference because nobody is paying them to do so.  These people aren't keeping the free market from functioning; they're filling in the gaps that the free market has never had cause to fill in.  It just so happens that smart marketers are starting to twig in to how they can benefit their clients by supporting these social catalysts.

 

There is hope out there, folk, no matter how bleak, desensitized and money-driven our world seems to be these days.  If there is anything on this good earth worth fighting for, that's it.