Poverty and health link

JAMIE BONHAM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Betty, a senior, lives on $900 a month. After paying for her rent, food, medications (she has seven prescriptions to fill) and transportation, not a lot is left over for activities outside of merely surviving. Not being able to participate in the community has led to feelings of isolation and depression for Betty. Having no savings causes her a great deal of stress and recent cuts by the provincial government are eating into her fixed income.

There is debate about what is poverty, where you draw the line and what are the essential needs of a person to be a healthy member of society. The standard used by many organizations in Canada, including the Jewish Family Service Agency, is the low income cut-off (LICO) used by Statistics Canada. These were designated in 1999 at $17,886 gross income for a single person, $22,357 for two people, $27,805 for a family of three and $33,658 for a family of four.

But these numbers don't tell the whole story. Of equal importance is how far below this poverty line people are living. Michael Goldberg of the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. released a report on the state of poverty in the Jewish community last year. It was commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region. According to the report, an average single parent with one child would fall as much as $9,000 below the LICO for their their particular group, while the average family with children living in poverty is $9,395 below this mark. (This report can be found at www.jfgv.com.)

The link between poverty and health has been well documented; the World Health Organization (www.who.int) lists income and social status as being the number one factor affecting the health of an individual. What has not been as well documented is the fact that the Jewish community experiences a similar rate of poverty to the general population: nearly one in six Jews lives in poverty.

"People don't believe me when I tell them that," said Joseph Tietz, director of the Jewish Family Services Agency (JFSA). "We really haven't been successful enough in conveying that there is a real crisis here."

Though the JFSA has been able to maintain and even expand certain services to help low-income earners, Tietz acknowledges that the organization is unable to deal with the numbers of people who are requesting help and he doesn't see what other organizations are going to do any better.

The JFSA provides a number of services for low-income families and individuals, ranging from community kitchens and home delivery of foods to grants for medications and counselling services. Tietz said that in the last four months, the JFSA has seen a 300 per cent increase in the number of people using their services. At the same time the JFSA has seen its funding slashed by the recent government cuts. The result is that more people who are on the edge of getting by are looking at a greater chance of experiencing diminished health due to a lack of money.

Rising costs of medical coverage and prescription medicines and limited availability of subsidized housing are especially troubling for the large amount of working poor, those people who are employed but are still living below the LICO. Significant amounts of people under 65 who are poor receive the bulk of their income not from government grants but from employment. For people like Betty, government programs exist to soften the effects of poverty. But for those people who work full-time and still can't make ends meet, the government safety net lets them fall through the holes. Single parents have seen their funding from the government slashed, day care and after school programs have been cut, and a range of other changes to social programs have affected their financial state. These families and individuals are often faced with the option of going without medication or going without food, a choice that has obvious ramifications for their health.

According to Tietz, the impact of poverty on mental well-being is as important as the impact on physical health. Interaction with community is a major part of one's mental health and feeling marginalized from the community due to a lack of money can lead to very serious problems . Those who live in poverty are often subject to greater amounts of stress and depression, said Tietz, which often leads to a greater incidence of domestic violence and drug use.

The stigmatization of being poor can often prevent people in need from reaching out to community agencies like the JFSA for fear of being labelled poor. David Berson, director of community planning for the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, said that Jews who are poor, "often feel embarrassed to avail themselves of community services because of the stereotype of Jewish people being well-to-do."

Berson is one of the organizers of the Yad b'Yad Coalition on Poverty, a group of agencies and individuals who have come together to form a partnership whose mandate is to address the problem of poverty in the Jewish community. Berson said that while there is a growing awareness of the issue of poverty in the Jewish community, there still remains a reluctance to address the problem head-on.
"The community is definitely making a much greater effort in relating to the problem much more seriously but there is now a need for some structural change to take place."

Tietz echoed the same concerns, saying that community agencies like the JFSA "need the support and involvement of the community even more these days, but are getting less support." Poor economic times have affected everyone and this, combined with competition for people's attention from other well-deserving issues, has led to a crossroads. Understandably, a healthy community consists of healthy individuals and currently issues of poverty have impacted the ability of certain members of the Jewish community to be healthy.

Because of her situation, Betty is grateful for all the help she receives from the community; without it she would be in very dire straits. For Betty, the greatest drawback to being poor is that she feels ostracized from the very community she depends upon for support. In the end, Betty knows that things aren't likely going to change for her anytime soon.

"I've got to be satisfied with what I have, since I have no choice."

The Coalition on Poverty is holding a forum on poverty issues and what the community can do on June 13, 7 to 10 p.m., at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Call Berson at 604-257-5105 or visit www.jfgv.com for information.

Jamie Bonham is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.

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