'Our hands are tied'
Confidentiality rules stifle community cooperation, says frontline worker
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, October 13, 2016
INUVIK
Burdensome legalities stifle social service workers and affect their ability to properly deal with clients.
Seema Allahdini, second from left in the front, walks with about a dozen other community members during Take Back The Night on Sept. 29. Allahdini echoed a recent report's finding that social service workers find their hands are tied when trying to assist clients. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo
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Such is the finding of a report presented by researchers Heather Fikowski and Pertice Moffitt titled "Rural and Northern Community Response to Intimate Partner Violence."
The study was conducted between 2011 and 2016 in Inuvik.
"What we heard over and over again was, 'Our hands are tied,'" said Moffitt, presenting the report to a group of frontline workers at Aurora College on Sept. 26.
Seema Allahdini, victim services coordinator in Inuvik, echoed that sentiment.
"We face a lot of barriers," said Allahdini about conducting her work.
Confidentiality rules particularly stifle progress.
As an example, Allahdini cited an incident where she called another organization to ask if a person there had seen one of her clients, but the other department couldn't answer her due to confidentiality rules.
"If I'm trying to support (a client and) they don't have a home, they don't have a phone and I'm asking you if you've seen that person, wouldn't the productive thing be to let me know if you have seen them or not seen them?" asked Allahdini.
Another difficulty is the GNWT's stipulations on income assistance.
Allahdini said when women go to the transition house escaping violence in their household, there are instances where they cannot receive income assistance.
"The quote is 'their needs are being met while they're staying at the transition house,' so women are put in a particularly difficult situation where their options are either to return to the home they left for good reason ... or to force themselves to become homeless so they can actually access income assistance," said Allahdini.
She's hoping to meet with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to get a better understanding of the GNWT's policies and see if there's any way to improve these kinds of situations.
As with most academic research and reports, Allahdini says the important thing is for this one to actually influence change on the ground.
"If everyone's feeling like their hands are tied, then why can't we come together and problem solve together?" she asked.
As a community, Inuvik has to be creative, she added, thinking beyond the ABCs of job descriptions and pursue overall objectives in different ways.
"It's a shame that in such a small community we're still working in those silos and we're not coming together to know what each other's doing, to help each other out, to support each other, to share skills, share resources, problem solve together, brainstorm together," she said.
