The Lethbridge Schizophrenia Society will have $85, 838 less to work with this year as cuts in provincial grants have prompted them to remove a number of its services.

Their provincial office had to do some restructuring in the wake of the 2010 federal budget release. Up to 13 of the group’s 17 programs could be cut. Most of the programs are activity based and act not only as support groups, but devices to help the clients become functioning members of society and ease the stigma of schizophrenia.
According to a source who can’t be identified for job security purposes, the group is being forced to significantly cut back the hours of three of its four employees and was told they are to do no more fundraising.
The provincial office feels the employees aren’t there to raise funds but rather to help the clients.
“Because we follow the working alone legislation we have two staff on every activity so we don’t have the staff to run the programs now is the big thing,” says the source.
Many of the grants the group got from Alberta Lotteries in the past are no longer available and donations are down nearly 60 per cent from last year.
“Last year we made more money fundraising that we’ve ever made, but now with the restructuring we’re not allowed to do any fundraising locally anymore,” adds the source.
Also a part of the group is Re-Pete Supplies, a Lethbridge-based initiative where people can drop off used building supplies to be resold. The clients have known it as an important employer. Recently, managers have run it from the provincial office in Edmonton.
The clients of the Lethbridge Schizophrenia Society feel helpless and for many, it’s all they have.
“I’ve been coming here for only a year and finally found something that I can go to and feel appreciated and have a sense of belonging. All of the sudden it feels like somebody’s taking a piece of duct tape and ripping it from me and I have nothing now. Where am I going to go? There is no place to go,” says client Nikkie Kindt.
The Lethbridge chapter has also been part of Dan Kordikowski’s life for nearly seven years.
“We have a partnership program where we go out to different places in the community and educate people with schizophrenia.”
He brings hockey cards and gives them out to kids at schools to help get them interested.
“If that’s going to be taken away, I feel like education is going to be something that’s hard to come by without having that partnership program, the Journey to Recovery program,” he adds.
Part of provincial office re-structuring is the construction of an apartment building for the clients. However, without social support, the clients feel there’s not much else.
“Whatever helps us socialize and get together and benefit society, we’re getting stripped of that,” adds Kordikowski.