“It’s important to understand that if you have values that include community and people, and you want your neighbour to live in dignity and with respect, and if you’re feeling the heaviness and the weight of the pandemic, then I think you should presume you are feeling moral distress. You should take the time to think about yourself and how you’re feeling.”

      -Beth Sheffield, Developmental Services Facilitator and Green Wood Coalition founding member
 
AT SOME POINT over the last two years it all may have started to feel like too much. Heaviness, is how Beth Sheffield, a Developmental Services Facilitator and Durham College teacher, describes it. Then, in the course of recent mental health training, she learned its name: Moral Distress.

Moral distress is a feeling of exhaustion, sadness or anxiety arising when you see something that is wrong but are powerless to fix it. First documented in nurses in the 1980s, it was later broadened to include anyone working in caregiving. Its relevance today to COVID-19 and what many of us are feeling is inescapable.

Consider what we’ve learned about the inequities the pandemic exposed -- how those who are homeless, experiencing food insecurity or living with mental and physical disability suffered disproportionately, how access to social and health supports was severely curtailed and how inadequately funded nursing homes proved fatal to our elderly, as sons and daughters looked on helplessly. Is it any wonder we feel moral distress?  

Add to this the endless media bombardment of how bad things were as we sat at home, forced to surrender activities and volunteer roles that gave meaning and purpose to our lives.
In an essay circulated this month to 3500 Christian Horizons employees reflecting on the pandemic,
​Beth writes, “It is almost as if this virus has been designed to separate us from each other.”

As a founder of Green Wood Coalition whose lifelong commitment, with husband, David, has been to work for inclusion, social connection and every person’s right to live in dignity, Beth shared her reflections on moral distress and where we will find hope.​

Green Wood: You work with staff who support people in independent living settings. How would you describe the moral distress these workers experienced?

Beth Sheffield: In my essay, I explain this: As an organization, we believe in the dignity and worth of every person, regardless of intellectual or physical disability. We demonstrate that worth by working tirelessly in our communities to support people in the pursuit of inclusion, whether by going to the neighbourhood coffee shop each week, where the person is known by name, supporting a person in pursuit of their employment goals, or helping someone connect to family they did not know they had. None of this has been possible during the pandemic, so the depth of grief and sadness we feel should almost be an expected outcome.

Green Wood: You spent the past year conducting interviews -- 137 in all -- with staff and those they support about the pandemic’s impact. How would you summarize what you learned?

Beth Sheffield: This has been a very difficult time for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. They were grouped with long-term care and presumed to be at great risk, so super sad things happened, like people were made to give up their paper routes -- of course, with the best of intentions to keep them safe -- but just so hard. Now, when restrictions are lifting, those routes are no longer available. Or people who swam three times a week were told the pool is closed so they were unable to have any physical activity over this entire time and will never gain that strength back. To hear these stories of great sadness from people or their loved ones has been so heavy, but I also feel honoured. 

Green Wood: Given what you’ve seen among frontline workers, is it legitimate to presume others, on the fringes, could experience moral distress?

Beth Sheffield: Yes. If we believe in community then, absolutely, every one of us should be having this struggle and feeling this distress. Of course, there may be different levels, but I think it’s all of us. If we care about our neighbour, then we are going to feel it. Giving words to it has helped me to process and think through it, to know that I’m not alone in this discomfort and that we have hope for better days ahead.

Green Wood: Organizations like Green Wood had hundreds of volunteers when the pandemic struck -- people who cooked for community dinners or helped with programs. As these roles were taken from them, they sat at home, seeing a need they could not help to fill.  What would you say to them?

Beth Sheffield: The first thing to understand is that you are not alone in feeling this sadness and sorrowfulness. It will take time for us to heal again. This has been a long journey. So whether it’s children who are behind in where they should or could be, whether they’ve just not had opportunities their siblings have had to go on class trips or to see their teacher’s face, or for the students I teach at Durham College who are graduating and, potentially, in the face-to-face role of support worker who have never been face to face, I think it’s all of us. You should take time to think about yourself and how you’re feeling. Practise self care, go for a walk, get some fresh air, try to sleep at night, try to eat nutritious food. When we take care of our bodies it really does help our mental and emotional health.

Healing resources are available at the following links:
https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331901/9789240003910-eng.pdf

This wonderful image takes us back to some memorable times that we've shared as a community around IMAGINATE conferences and 'evenings of possibility'. While that kind of in-person human experience hasn't been possible for the past couple of years, we are planning some exciting gatherings and are making plans for IMAGINATE 2023. [This evocative painting created by artist, Mique Michele, is now on display at our Community Hive in Port Hope.]

​Green Wood: How does it feel to be a published author?
Nicole Whitmore: It feels amazing. I had no idea it was going to grow into something this spectacular when I was invited into this project. And, yes, it was a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I also understood what I had to give to this was quite valuable, so I leaned into my uncomfortable.

Green Wood: What was your role?
Nicole: A lot of the lived experience stuff came from James (another team member) and me. They were bouncing ideas off us and asking, ‘You guys have lived this, so does this make sense?’ Being able to interview the academics as a person who has lived expertise and share those thoughts was really quite amazing. We had some fantastic conversations.  

Green Wood: You mention “leaning into the uncomfortable.” Did that include interviewing the country’s top academics and doctors on this subject?
Nicole: I went in with a bit of an expectation that these could be people who think they know everything but don’t really have an idea. I was so pleasantly surprised. My heart felt good in every single interview I did. If we had been face to face, I would have hugged them and said, ‘Thank you, thank you for just understanding life’s challenges of being homeless and what homelessness looks like in all its aspects.’

Green Wood: You realized you had a lot to give to this project. Why is creating this course important?
Nicole: There’s such stigma attached to mental illness, substance use and homelessness that people can’t get around. We need to learn more in order to do better. We had conversations about what does it look like to be a youth in homelessness? What about seniors in homelessness? What about mental health? What about the LGBTQ+ community? What’s equitable health care? These are things a lot of people don’t consider. They just see a homeless person, but they don’t understand that the queer kid can’t feel safe in a shelter system and had to leave their home. It’s so important for us just to get it.  

Green Wood: What are the key misconceptions about homelessness this book debunks?
Nicole: That people are lazy, unemployable, uneducated, mentally ill, addicted to drugs. Not every person who is homeless is addicted or struggling with substance dependence. I mean the longer you’re out on the street, of course you’re going to end up with isolation, disconnection, depression. All those are real things, but it doesn’t mean you’re drinking mouthwash in a McDonald’s bathroom. People just have this full-on misconception that they’re worthless. 

Green Wood: How do we prevent homelessness?
Nicole: We need affordable housing. That’s how you prevent homelessness. Do better with your shelter systems, with transitional housing. All of these pieces are important. It’s about taking time to understand why a person is homeless and really hearing people. Prevention requires being more available, understanding and compassionate to someone’s situation and trying to support them with their way of living, respecting someone’s culture, their day-to-day. I don’t know if you will ever end homelessness, but we can understand it, and we can certainly put things in place in the hope that somebody doesn’t end up homeless.
​
Green Wood: Final question - How cool is it that Green Wood’s art kits inspired the illustrations in the book?
Nicole:  Almost everyone who contributed art is living homeless right now. They are doing a lot of couch surfing, squatting and whatever they can to survive. A lot of them shared their names to the artwork so they are also published! We were able to pay them an honorarium for their pieces -- nice pay, not just a Tim Hortons gift card. So it was really nice for me to be able to not just tell them how much I value them but to show them.

Coldest Night of the Year 2022 soared over our goal thanks to Northumberland’s generosity and enthusiasm!

​Co-workers, families, service clubs, police, fire and hospital staff. They showed up 400-strong, walking to raise money to support those in our community who have the least. When the day was done, this year’s Coldest Night of the Year walk-a-thon soared past its $75,000 goal, raising a record-breaking $124,000.

With the majority of participants gathering in downtown Port Hope to walk in person on Feb. 26, event chair Philip Redford looked out into the crowd with megaphone in hand, booming, “Thank you Northumberland from the bottom of our hearts!” Last year, COVID-19 forced the event to go “virtual,” with people walking in their own groups from locations of their choosing.

Overwhelmed by this year’s results, Redford thanked “our amazingly generous community, our incredible sponsors, team captains, walkers and a dedicated team of volunteers. You saw that the need is great and you stepped up to answer the call to help our neighbours. Green Wood Coalition salutes you!”

​Executive Director David Sheffield believes the community understands Green Wood’s approach to helping differs from most charity models and service delivery. When its outreach staff meets people they are most often in crisis and need someone to help them navigate the barriers to finding help.

“Rather than defining a person by the issues they face -- homeless, disabled or addicted -- we see a person with a story that needs to be heard and understood. Listening reveals the strengths and gifts that have carried that person this far.

“Human connection is always the beginning and ending point for us, because belonging to a healthy and caring community is the best way to move from crisis to stability.”

Coldest Night of the Year is a national event that raises money in charities’ home communities to help those who are hungry, homeless and hurting. Here in Northumberland County, the money raised funds Green Wood Coalition’s street outreach and programs for people who struggle with poverty, homelessness, mental health and addiction.