Dear Mr. Harper,
I want my money back.
My recent experience with government social services has convinced me that there is absolutely no service being provided to our society through the social services leg of the government. I am pretty sure that some of the money I sent to you last year was directed to that part of government and since they are obviously completely useless, I'd like my money back (please).
A member of my family was recently given a loose diagnosis of a mental health problem and the hospital psychiatrist recommended we get help from the government programs that are available for this type of situation. We were handed pamphlets and told to speak to our family doctor. We were told that hospitals could not provide that care, but *someone* in social services system would be able to help us.
Pamphlets? Referrals? "But this is an emergency!", we protested... and who is this *somebody* who can help?
We did as directed, got a referral from the family doctor and were assured we could get the emergency psychotherapy that would help. A week later we received a letter from the government informing us that we would be contacted for a group therapy appointment in approximately 4 months. So the *emergency* psychological services we were told to expect turned out to be an appointment for family counseling services in 4 months time - maybe.
Every time we speak to anybody in the social services and mental health arena, we are told something completely different. One social worker told us that exactly the services we needed were available and all we had to do was ask. We asked the department we were told to ask and they said - "Oh no, we don't do that", but here is a pamphlet with some information about the problem. GREAT - more pamphlets. I could wallpaper a freaking room with all the pamphlets and information circulars I have been handed by people at hospitals and social services offices. I have been given contact information for private clinics, names of books I should read, and phone numbers of support lines where very nice people will listen patiently to you but can *do* absolutely nothing. More often than not, we have been given misdirection. One person says "call here and they will help"... we call and they say " oh no, we don't do that" - often these are people in the same office!
I have a family member who has a very serious mental issue and no one in the social services or mental health has been able to offer any kind of real assistance. The only person who has done anything concrete to help at all basically just said - sorry, we can't do anything for you. At least she did not try to redirect me like everyone else.
So I want my money back. I figure at least some of the tax money I sent you should have gone into *real* programs and support that I could have counted on, but all I got was a stack of pamphlets, most of which were inaccurate and all of which was freely available on the internet. I am more than happy to pay my share into a system that provides service to our society through our social service system, but apparently all you are doing is filling a pension fund, paying people to fill desks, and generating useless paper trails.
Where the hell is the benefit for my taxes - and who is going to help my family when we need it?
