Moncton one of just five Canadian cities taking part in four-year research project

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By Aloma Jardine
Times & Transcript Staff

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Claudette Bradshaw has spent many years working on behalf of the poor and the needy, long enough to well understand the frustrations of those who feel the system doesn't always fit the needs of the clients it aims to serve.

But Bradshaw believes Canada is on the cusp of doing something very, very right for one of its most vulnerable populations, and Moncton is one of the communities at the forefront of the project.

The Hub City is one of just five cities in the country taking part in a four-year national research project, At Home/Chez Soi, that is likely to completely change the way Canada deals with people who are homeless and have a mental illness.

Instead of trying to provide treatment to the mentally ill who are living on the streets, At Home/Chez Soi first provides participants with housing, then allows them to choose their own treatment plans.

Bradshaw says one of the things she is most excited about is that researchers are sitting down with the service providers and giving them a voice.

"We know what is right, we know what to do, but we've never had the opportunity to have researchers walking in partnership with us, (to) say that what we are doing is the right thing to do," she says. "As much as we cry in the private sector, public servants cry as much as we do. And as much as we want to do it right, public servants want to do it right also and that is why this project is so unique; bringing both of us together with a research team. It can't not work. It can't."

At Home/Chez Soi is an adaptation of a U.S. program called Housing First. One of the things that sets the Housing First approach apart is that participants are not required to meet any conditions to be part of the program.

"This program flies in the face of many traditional programs that often demand that the participants demonstrate their readiness to move into housing through sobriety or psychiatric visits before they'll find a place a live," says Debbie McInnis of the United Way of Greater Moncton and Southeastern NB. "At Home/Chez Soi helps people where they are at in their lives, removing the stress of not having a place to call home."

Instead of a set recovery plan being dictated, participants are free to choose their own treatment, helped along by a team of professionals. Participants are required to pay a portion of their rent, meet with program staff once a week, and are offered health, housing and social support services.

"As hard as people have tried to deliver services to people who are homeless or mentally ill, it's very hard to treat somebody who is sleeping on a grate," says Dr. David Goldbloom, vice-chairman of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. "And because the treatment is ultimately, in the long run, about helping people recover their dignity, their functioning and their quality of life..."

The commission is carrying out the research with $110 million in federal funding.

Goldbloom says there has already been some research done in British Columbia that has shown that the Housing First approach may actually be cheaper than the current methods of dealing with homelessness and mental illness where people end up living in shelters and using emergency rooms as their primary method of health care.

"You can have the best suite in the Delta Beauséjour for much less than a night in the hospital," he says. "Those costs are enormous because people with mental illness occupy a significant number of hospital beds in Canada."

Goldbloom says 25 to 50 per cent of Canada 's homeless are thought to have or have had a mental illness, which translates into 40,000 to 150,000 people.

In his spotless white open-collar shirt and dark suit, Jerry Francis hardly looks like someone who is familiar with life on the street.

But not so very long ago, Francis's only home was the great outdoors, his closest companion the bottle of wine he kept tucked in his jacket.

"It was decided that one day compassion would be shown to me and it was shown by Reconnect and, a few years down the road, by the community chaplaincy, (who) offered me room and I've been there ever since."

Francis is now a representative for Moncton in the research group.

"Coming from the streets, I cannot tell you how much my heart cries to see a beginning of an understanding to human life, to human rights," he says. "North America is so rich, we shouldn't have to be one minute or one second... homeless or ...without food or without clothing."

While homelessness may not be as visible in Moncton as in larger cities like Montreal and Toronto, Goldbloom says the fast-growing city definitely has a significant homelessness problem as people gravitate here from other smaller communities. Each city participating -- Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Moncton -- has one specific area it is going to focus on.

Moncton will look at the availability of mental health services and mental illness in rural areas.

The study includes 2,285 people across the country. A little more than half, 1,325, will be provided with housing while the remainder will have access to the services currently available in their communities.

In Moncton there will be up to 225 participants, with 125 provided with housing. Goldbloom says the project is already well under way in Moncton, with some people already being housed.