Community-based mental health organizations are very important in building a social safety net. We need to have these places to gather, meet, help and help to support the community.

 

In order to forge links between Groupe Innova and the mental health community, I conducted four interviews with members and staff from Projet PAL, a non-profit organization (NPO) that is well established in the Verdun community.

 

This article will focus on the history of Projet PAL, its mission, its contribution to the community, its successes and challenges, and the unique perspectives of the staff and members.

 

 

History

 

In 1974, many merchants in Verdun said that there were homelessness problems. To address this issue, social worker Stan Herman was hired to conduct a study on social problems in Verdun. Mr. Herman's report stated that there was no problem with the people. The problem was that there was no service. People were discharged from psychiatric hospitals without any community groups, adequate housing or services.

 

Stan Herman, assisted by a social worker from the CLSC of Verdun and about twenty people with mental health challenges, founded Projet PAL in 1975. The primary mission of Projet PAL was to find adequate and affordable housing for people with mental health challenges. Projet PAL is an alternative mental health organization created by members with support.

 

 

Mission

 

Projet PAL's mission is to meet the needs of people with mental health challenges in southwest Montreal. Projet PAL intervenes at the level of shelter, poverty, social justice and isolation. The organization helps its members find a purpose in life, come together and meet new people. It helps people with mental health challenges have a voice and status and regain their place as citizens. Projet PAL helps its members to regain humain dignity.

 

 

Contribution to the community

 

Projet PAL has an undeniable positive impact on its members and the southwest Montreal community. According to one member, community meals can help a lot of people: '' I always bring the lunch story on Thursdays. Any Projet PAL member can apply. It's a good meal, and it's nice to eat something good and hot with a good dessert. ''

 

 

The organization is very active in the housing component with Carrefour autonomie PAL (CAP), logis-PAL and Sous le toit de PAL because its members have named the need for affordable and safe housing.

 

Projet PAL is also present on several committees in Verdun, such as the table of mental health partners or the CACV (Comité d'action des citoyens de Verdun). It is in these committees that decisions are made for citizens, and Projet PAL ensures that the needs of people with mental health challenges are taken into account.

 

The Projet PAL director points out that the organization can sometimes educate the police community about the approach to adopt with homeless people with mental health challenges: '' There are many more homeless people in Verdun compared to when I started. Before they were more downtown. Now we see homeless people living on Verdun Beach or in the parking lot on Wellington. ''

 

 

The good moves

 

 

Sous le toit de PAL

 

A good move of Projet PAL is the creation of Sous le toit de PAL in 2012. Sous le toit de PAL is aimed at people at risk of homelessness and with a lack of autonomy. During the creation of this housing resource, there were difficult negotiations with the health network and the OMH (Office municipal d'habitation) so that Projet PAL had autonomy in the choice of residents.

 

 

The covid-19 pandemic

 

Another good move is that Projet PAL has skillfully weathered the covid-19 pandemic, but within its accommodation resources and in the drop-in (community center where activities are held). The work team worked very hard to adjust services during this unusual time.

 

Members have also been very resilient during the pandemic. Some said, '' It hasn’t changed much for me. Even that I find that people will understand how I live all the time. I’ve already spent a lot of weekends alone. I have no contact with my family, I do not have a boyfriend and the restaurant for me is few times a year. ''

 

 

A solution-oriented approach (SOA)

 

In recent years, Projet PAL has implemented the SOA (solution-oriented approach), a therapeutic approach of which the director says she is proud:

 

“ We still have our colors of alternative approach without diagnosis, focused on the person and her strengths. But with SOA, we have many more tools. We are one of the first NPOs in Montreal to use this approach in all aspects of the organization. For the employees, for the community support of the members, it is very enriching for the organization in general. ''

 

The director adds: '' When you do an interview with someone, even when the person did not get the position, or the member did not have the place as a resident at Sous le toit de PAL, the person says that they felt good during the interview. It is because we try to find the strengths and we rely on the good moves of the person. ''

 

 

In the SOA approach, we always ask ourselves: '' What is our best hope ? ''

 

 

PAL-Action

 

PAL-Action was recently implemented and is inspired by the government program PAAS-Action. The goal of Pal-Action is not only the return to work, but this program also has a therapeutic purpose. The program coordinator focuses on '' social, personal and cultural development. We want workshops and activities to be diversified. ''

 

The PAL-Action schedule consists of 15 hours at the organization and 5 hours of personal work at home. Personal work can be for example to socialize more or to create a schedule at home. The 15 hours at the organization are paid as a PAAS-Action.

 

Projet PAL has also set up a pilot project which consists of a part-time PAL-Action. This is fewer hours than the regular PAL-Action and the remuneration is half. The staff set up this pilot project because they realized that 15 hours at the organization is not possible for everyone in terms of energy and motivation.

 

The program coordinator says, '' One of the things that makes me really happy and tells me that this is a program that brings benefits is that there are people who are in their second year who are doing it. It tells me it’s something they love and they see a change in their lives. ''

 

 

Projet PAL's challenges

 

 

Collaboration with the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ)

 

To ensure the sustainability of logis-PAL, Projet PAL has established a partnership with the SHQ. However, this collaboration is sometimes difficult because there is a significant lack of funding from the SHQ. It is also difficult to have good communication with this entity because advisers change often and Projet PAL does not always get a response to its emails.

 

 

Inflation

 

The director reports that the cost of living increased for the members and there is an important distress. More and more, she hears this: '' I cannot make ends meet. It’ s the end of the month. I am someone who normally is good with their budget, but now I cannot make ends meet. '' As a result, members need to depend more on food banks, which are already overwhelmed.

 

 

Find new employees

 

Finding new employees is a real challenge for the management of the organization: '' In the past, I had an evaluation grid for resumes, there was room for 60 resumes. Now, I have place for 20, 10. If I receive 5 it’s good. Out of the 5, there are two that have a little bit of experience, and if these two persons are not hired elsewhere. '' This is why Projet PAL tries to improve the working conditions of the employees to therefore attract and retain them.

 

 

The staff

 

 

Professional path

 

An employee who studied theatre works at Projet PAL for a little more than three years. Before joining the organization, she had a burnout in a large company where the human aspect was missing. It was in this context that she started to look for a stable job '' that would nourish her soul ''. She wanted a job that would be accessible and that would allow her to help others. She then turned to the community: '' When I did a community project with the CJE (Carrefour jeunesse emploi), I fell so much in love with the Verdun community. ''

 

As for the director, who has travelled extensively and has been an actress and florist, she developed a taste for democracy at an early age. In the mid-80s, when deinstitutionalization was underway and there were many patients outside hospitals and few services, she applied for a drop-in worker position. She was also one of the first workers to work in housing.

 

 

Why work at Projet PAL ?

 

The director loves the members of Projet PAL for their charm, their honesty and their integrity. There is a link between her values and those of the members. Her friends tell her that she works with a difficult population but she does not believe that. She says that in her job, she can be herself. Furthermore, her tasks are varied and she has the opportunity to sometimes work from home, which improves her quality of life.

 

One worker finds it interesting that Projet PAL is an alternative community center opened not only to the psychology but also to different types of activities and therapies. She likes that each team member can contribute with their knowledge and tools. The fact that Projet PAL is bilingual makes it a unifying and accessible environment.

 

 

Projet PAL also encourages work-study and work-life balance as well as employee training. Working at Projet PAL allows you to use your creativity.

 

 

Integration into the team

 

The interviewee said she felt very well integrated into the team. During her first three months of work, the director met with her every week to talk about her integration. Now, the two women meet when needed. There are also team meetings once a week '' We ask ourselves what we can do to support and help each other.'' The worker admits, however, that it was difficult for her at the beginning to understand the services and the structure of the organization (e.g. partners, the difference between the various housing).

 

 

The challenge of setting limits

 

One worker reports that she sometimes finds it difficult to set boundaries with members: '' The members tell me sometimes things that are really personal. It is sometimes difficult to distance myself. As a worker, I want to give, help, but I cannot do it for our 200 members. Sometimes, I have to refer. Other times, I have to say no and tell the person that I can’t help more than I helped them. ''

 

 

In the future...

 

In a year and a half, the director will retire and she will have to mourn her career. During retirement, she would like to travel as well as serve on the board of directors of a social justice organization. With her extensive background in mental health, she says she has developed an ability to talk to people.

 

The worker interviewed wishes that the PAL-Action program be better connected to other organizations and to the community. Take the PAL-Activists out of the Projet PAL so that they are more visible. The worker intends to stay with Projet PAL for the long term and would like to apply for other positions such as director or as a facilitator in housing resources.

 

 

Members

 

 

Housing

 

One member stated that contrary to his former apartment in Saint-Henri, it is dead calm in his apartment at Sous le toit de PAL. The fact that he pays only $256 a month helps a lot in managing his savings. He says that he is more independent than in Saint-Henri since he now does his shopping on his own (without his parents) and he has enough money throughout the month to survive.

 

His current apartment also provides him psychological stability: '' I have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. I was hospitalized several times when I lived in Saint-Henri. I always ended up in the hospital. Now, it’s almost two years that I have been living here and I was not even hospitalized once. ''

 

 

Activities

 

Projet PAL offers to its members several activities: coffee meetings, community lunches, outings in Montreal or outside the city, mental health support group, etc. A member says what helps him to integrate with others is '' The workers are there every time, it's like moderators, they manage the groups well. '' Going to Projet PAL’s activities allows him to fight depression and suicidal thoughts and forces him to take care of his hygiene.

 

This same member agrees that it is beneficial that the workers push the members to do activities, but not excessively: '' The worker that was responsible for my file at Sous le toit de PAL pushed me strongly to volunteer and get involved in all kinds of things. The activities at Projet PAL are sufficient for me.''

 

 

Testimony of a caregiver

 

A caregiver who has served on Projet PAL's Board of Directors finds that the members of Projet PAL are more interesting than the persons who don't have mental health problems: '' When someone takes it upon oneself to listen to them, to give them attention, it is a privilege for them because they are in their shell. ''

 

Here is the testimony of this caregiver: '' I was divorced. My wife had Alzheimer’s disease. She had remarried but her husband died. We realized that she was forgetting things. The children, it was up to them to take care of their mother, I am divorced. But when I saw that things were deteriorating, I convinced her to come to Projet PAL. She was given tasks such as washing dishes. She anticipated all week the day where there were meals, because she did the dishes. She stayed at Projet PAL for three years. We did outings like going to the sugar shack or apple picking. When she passed away, I made an arrangement with Projet PAL, people were told not to give flowers, but to donate to Projet PAL. You gave her pleasure, you gave her happiness. You gave her a reason to live. There’s no price for that. ''

 

 

Conclusion

 

In the 1970s, during deinstitutionalization, there were no services in Verdun for people with mental health challenges. Projet PAL was therefore founded to address this problem. In fact, the current mission of Projet PAL consists of addressing the needs of people having mental health challenges in southwest Montreal.

 

This article highlighted that the organization has a very positive impact on its members and the community. Projet PAL achieved several successes such as the creation of Sous le toit de PAL, the implementation of the AOS approach and of PAL-Action. The organization also faces challenges such as lack of funding, inflation or finding new employees.

 

The workers have diverse backgrounds and are truly committed to the well-being of members. They appreciate the housing resources and drop-in activities. These services truly improve their quality of life.