Shortages, shmortages

I was watching the news the other morning, and everything was about shortages.

Ottawa needs an additional 175 doctors to accommodate the population, housing shortages, food prices on the rise, and the demand for food in soup kitchens increasing. An employee of such services mentioned that they now give out a 5 lbs bag of potatoes when they used to give 10 lbs to their clients because of the rising food prices.

I believe most people understand the concept of supply and demand, so let’s examine this: not enough housing, food, or doctors, with a demand for more services for homelessness, supplemental heating costs, food prices expected to rise again, and a local municipal tax increase of 4.15 percent. Waiting lists for services have gotten longer, and waiting times have increased. We all act like this just happened. I will let you figure out if the supply is not enough or the demand is just too high.

We have a men’s support group in town; 5 new men have joined in the last two weeks. Life is tough. This is a volunteer-based group; a local health center provides us with a room. Every community service seems to believe this is a necessity; men travel from out of town to join us because there are no other groups around. We’ve been around for five years, yet not one of the city’s community services thinks enough of this to actually fund such services. We get referrals from a variety of mental health organizations in town, but not one would pay us to do the work.

There is a shift: younger men are seeking out our services, the need is there. Psychotherapists charge about $135 an hour, psychologists and psychiatrists even more, and individuals are lucky if they can find one, let alone afford one. The men’s support group is just that, support and mentorship. Many of our men could use additional services, and some of them have the professional help they need. We are worthy services; we hear it weekly from our members. It’s funny how there isn’t one other service in the community that has the mandate to supply a support group for men. Because men lose jobs, men suffer in relationships, men get lonely, men get sick or have chronic diseases, mood disorders, men get anxious and depressed, go through divorce, go bankrupt, and think about suicide… Unfortunately, men also hate waiting six months to be seen, but hey, which service would think of that?