Imagine Mary – Mary is a single Mum with 3 children , she has tried really hard, due to Covid she has lost her job, she has no money, she can’t feed the children, the bailiffs are knocking on the door every day – Mary is desperate and by now mentally ill and not sleeping.
So Mary opens her front door to go in search of help and what is scary in Britain in 2021 is that we dont know where Mary will go. She might go to the local authority, the Housing Association, her GP, the Church, her children’s school, the Church, the DWP or to one of the hundreds of local charities.
But ALMOST always, wherever she does go, that organisation will do what it does and will then wish her well. The Doctor will probably give her anti-depressants, the Foodbank will give her food, the DWP may (after 5 weeks) give her benefits but No-One looks at Mary as a whole human being and spends the time to help her to prioritise her problems and then makes sure she gets to the right agencies in the right order and also where necessary acts as her advocate.
The issue is that we do have many organisations in the UK to help Mary but they are disconnected and can best be described as often working in their own silo. We MUST find a way to connect all these organisations and to provide Mary with help to get to each place she needs to get to in the right order and to make sure that at each place she asks the right questions or fills in the right form correctly.
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