Provincial funding a factor in student's attack, outreach worker says

The provincial funding system the Selkirk Behavioural Health Foundation works on is partly responsible for the beating Jackie Healey suffered on Sunday, according to a Winnipeg woman with a background in social work.

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"You create a really vulnerable system when you use a fee-for-service system to fund an institution," Marion Willis said. "That makes no sense to me. It never has made sense to me."

Willis works at St. Boniface Street Links, an organization that works to endhomelessness in Winnipeg. Willishas more than 30 years experience working insocial work.

The fee-for-service system Manitobauses to fund treatment centres like the Selkirk facility had a dangerous domino effect that ended with a 23-year-old student in hospital, she said.

"This is the worstcase scenario that one could imagine coming out of the fee-for-service model," Willis said.

"[Selkirk Behavioural Health Foundation]has been largely successful, but success is tied to your funding support. The political wheel has to be there to support it."

Earlier this month, the foundation announced its two facilities in Selkirk and St. Norbert will be closing in June due to lack of funding.

A fee-for-service model means the funding is based on how many kids are in each facility bed. More kids means more funding. This model is doomed from the start, Willis said.

There weren't as many kids in the treatment centres, and there wasn't enough funding, she said.

She thinks that's why there weren't enough staff to handle the alleged conduct of the two boys that night.

"That particular healing centre takes in ... the highest risk youth," Willis said.

"For me, the practicum student doesn't really count because she wouldn't have any real responsibility. Typically, it wouldn't be a supervisor left with two very high-risk males."

Provincial funding needs to change its model for facilities like the Selkirk centre, Willis said.

She said giving organizations a set sum, otherwise known as block funding, is a better option.

"The way you secure the safety and the well-being of your institution, the way you ensure you have the operational funds and the capacity to manage your population at any ratio, is through block funding," Willis said.

"That way, they know that regardless if they have 16 youth or they have six youth, they have the staff to administer their program."

Other organizations who operate on fee-for-service funding face staffing cuts and other dangerous factors, Willis said.

"Fee-for-service funding is one of the greatest barriers, and it's a variable that puts a lot of organizations in very high-risk positions," she said. "You're never sure what your operation funds are going to be."