CARE

by Dee Gray, M.S.W., M.F.T

I am the co-editor and co-director of a media organization, I am also a social worker and licensed psychotherapist in the state of California.

As a mental health professional I believe that Gavin Newsom's plan called Care Not Cash (Proposition N) is so very antithetical to help for mental illness, substance abuse, etc.

CARE, the word, implies empathy, help, reaching out. Gavin Newsome's use of the word CARE is cynical, cruel, distinctly the opposite of empathy, help, or reaching out.

To remove money from the San Francisco worker's paycheck (aka;the Cash Assistance Grant given to folks on General Assistance/Welfare who do Workfare) with the idea that mental health services and all needed services will be provided instead is cynical. These services do not exist and would require several years to develop. What really exists for poor people and homeless people is meager at best.

In my opinion instead of decreasing the amount of the paycheck to the (workfare) workers, (workfare, the work that people must perform to receive their monthly cash assistance grant) yes, workers, because that’s what they are – very low-wage workers (similar to indentured servants). Instead of decreasing the paychecks, these workers paycheck should be increased to $3,000 per month, at least.

The primary reason for the pay check increase would be to pay for mental health services which for "talk therapy" and "meds" would cost from $60 per 50 minute session to $300 per 50 minute session. 50 minutes being the usual length of time per session with mental health professionals.

The $150 to $300 per 50 minute rate is the cost that Gavin Newsome can pay for psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic pyschotherapy. This type of therapy usually takes from 2 to 5 days per week. Because there is a significant amount of mental illness and substance abuse in the worker population, that in some cases date back to early child hood experiences as well as abuse by the system that poor people live with every day, daily or almost daily therapy would be the most beneficial.

I personally believe a combination of psychotherapy, advocacy, and self help is the best way of helping folks in the population being discussed. Psychotherapy in the form of long term cognitive or "talk therapy" would be of great benefit in any treatment plan or, as I have stated, long term psychoanalysis. I also would recommend any therapy be based in cultural and ethnic awareness and not be based simply on eurocentric psychology that stresses the individual over the group. Eurocentric psychology - that is, the parallel of the economic system of capitalism –

At Poor we view all labor as work and all those that labor as workers – this includes unrecognized work such as recycling, panhandling, work fare, street cleaning, (etc.)

Workers in any system normally have, or try to have, work that includes health care, vacations, sick leave, etc. Yet in the eyes of San Francisco and under Proposition N (Care Not Cash), these workers performing unrecognized work, not only do not receive benefits but are now being told that they should receive a major cut in pay – thereby making it impossible for them to acquire the expensive psychotherapy that would benefit them immensely. Additionally they are scorned for the very work that they do by those with wealth and privilege (and higher paying jobs) such as Gavin Newsome.

If these scorned workers can’t have access to the type of work benefits that the wealthy folks like Gavin Newsome have access to because they do not receive high enough wages for their work or do not have inherited wealth, then it makes sense for their employer, the city of San Francisco, to provide benefits. One of which would be a really good health care plan that provides top-notch culturally aware mental health services – the expensive kind that Gavin Newsome has access to. I also recommend that each worker have a healthcare card that identifies them as an employee of San Francisco, similar to the cards that Kaiser and UC, etc. give to their clients.

These mental health care benefits combined with advocacy and self help programs already in existence, would be what I as a mental health professional, would recommend that these workers receive. And if the city of San Francisco refuses to provide the benefits for these workers like the rest of the city’s workers receive, than I would recommend a large increase, up to $3,000 per month, in monthly benefits for each worker so that they could buy their own private mental healthcare benefits.

Finally, This Care Not Cash plan put forth by Gavin Newsome, only perpetrates misery and poverty and most important, makes a mockery of the word CARE.