A Friend At The Door

[Music] [Music] [Music] for each hotel McKeever's cabin I gotta haul myself across a canyon in a cable bucket 90 feet above the Thompson River one reason my job never gets monotonous I'm a rural social worker in British Columbia my name's George Dylan it's part of my job to call on all the old-age pensioners in my district every so often to see how they're getting along Tom McKeever is really too old to be living up here in the mountains all by himself but this cabin is home to him and Erie stays very old chap nothing wrong with him except he's getting older needs a new set of Stewart teeth I've been trying to persuade Tom to move into town but he says he likes it here never gets lonesome as long as you can see the trains go by [Music] [Applause] I think I'll get Tom to make a trip out one of these days to see your dentist then when he comes to town I'll try to get him into the provincial men's home that's about a hundred miles at the railway f Kamloops I work out of the district office there we handle all the social services in a mighty big area sagebrush and mountain country mostly sometimes it takes me ten days to cover my own territory and we have two other visiting workers for the rest of the district then there's an office staff and our supervisor mrs. Anderson some people think of a social worker as a Snoopy old sourpuss like the one in York Wilson's painting well I suppose there are a few of her kind still around but not around here it's a nice bit of satire but I'm afraid that lady wouldn't last long in rural welfare we're perfectly normal people and we're very proud of our profession that's what I've just been telling the new girl she's a college student taking in-service training with us as part of her course we have some pretty advanced social legislation on the books in British Columbia but it can't just stay on the books it has to be brought to the people who need it and that's our job and it calls for skill and training which is true of social service anywhere of course but particularly true here because we have very special problems it's a huge province but so rugged and mountainous but most of our people are concentrated into one small corner of it nearly 3/4 of British Columbia's 1 million people live within 50 miles of Vancouver City Hall [Music] the big times and cities have their own welfare departments and the province provides half the trained staff this leaves rural welfare that's us the job of handling social services for the people in the lonely places a few hundred thousand in a countryside bigger than France so we've divided it into five great regions each will half a dozen district offices like this one in the city a social worker can specialise out here we can't our miss Warren for example has 248 cases on her list though she has to handle all kinds of problems she isn't here today she's in a little town about 50 miles out following up some of those cases [Applause] I can't think of them as cases they're human beings this time to human beings Peggy and her baby the public health nurse put me in touch with Peggy a few months ago when think he took refuge in this town because her sister lives here the poor kid hasn't a nickel but we've seen it she had proper hospital care and now I've got to help her to do some planning for the future Peggy isn't married but she has certain rights in this world and so has the baby human rights the one thing they have a legal right to some support from the child's father he doesn't even want to talk about him it wasn't a love affair well she had a few foolish drinks one night and now here she is and where is he I have already here based on a report from Jim Cassidy one of our social work is over in region 2 our network covers the province pretty thoroughly we heard that this man was working in a logging camp over there so we asked Cassidy to look him up Jim had to borrow a jeep to make the trip over the mountain roads [Music] but the Foreman says play his boyfriend doesn't work there anymore quite a boy some friend he skipped out no forwarding address so that's that Peggy says she doesn't care she never wants to see him again wouldn't marry him if he asked her but she wants to keep the baby without job money or a husband that isn't going to be easy she may give it up for adoption but we'll talk about that later I'll see what I can do and maybe Cassidy will find the father I'm glad I haven't got Cassidy's territory that's wild country Outback is Squamish he says he likes it that he can have it [Music] I wouldn't like this country quite so much if I had to travel it on foot railway boys now I'd never get my work done if I had to wait for the local on this job you simply use any transportation you can find to get where you want to go I've just covered a social allowance case near all too late now it's a 25 mile downgrade run to be in time for a juvenile court case at Squamish Joe Zangara age 15 Freddie Wilson age 12 charge theft runaways they were hungry so they robbed a grocery store it will help the magistrate if he knows something about their background so that's where I come in I have information about these boys a letter from a social worker in Vancouver tells us what happened when she called it Joe's home to tell mr. Zangara that his son was in trouble again Joe hasn't any mother and his background isn't very good [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] maybe Joe's father doesn't care what happens to the boy but we care and the facts will help the magistrate as for Freddie Wilson the younger lad it's a different background mrs. Jenner the social worker in Freddie's hometown over in the Okanagan Valley sent me some information about him good upbringing good school record he's never been in trouble before it's been a terrible blow to his parents his mother is here today it's a long journey from the Okanagan and I don't think she could well afford it a few days ago mrs. Jenner called it the Wilson home and she tells us the family circumstances haven't been good lately because mr. Wilson is in poor health but they can't understand why Freddie ran away and got into this Jam we can't advise the magistrate what to do of course but we have helped with all this information with Joe the answer seems to be an indefinite term at the boys industrial school not to punish him but to help him before it's too late in the case of Freddie family background makes a difference the decision reading is to be sent back home on probation [Music] but that doesn't mean we're finished these boys are at a critical age others social workers will follow up from here at the industrial school and at Freddie's home we work in terms of people at the provincial Parliament Buildings in Victoria our departmental heads work in terms of policy it's their job to work out the program which we translate into action all over the province [Music] we spend more money on health and welfare than on any other public service most of it comes from a three percent sales tax illness appellate is using our service pay us according to population we simply try to figure out a common-sense way of handling our problems so while our outlook may seem new and while our methods may break with tradition they are highly practical in the country of scattered population and fantastic area we've had to unify our services because so many of the people who need the most help live in the most remote places in the deep Rockies of the coast range in the Kootenays and up in the caribou country our workers have to drive many lonely miles to make their calls the rural social worker out here is like a country doctor who has to handle all kinds of cases and get there somehow [Music] inland transportation is only half the problem we have 3000 miles of the most rugged coastline in the world so it's a matter of routine for some of our people to do most of their traveling by boat our own lunch the Sheila is the workhorse of the service it makes short runs to the Gulf Islands longer voyages carrying social workers to the villages on the north coast of Vancouver Island and other distant places that can be reached only by sea the social worker is a familiar figure on the coastal steamers that bring freight and mail to the ports in the mainland sometimes he's lucky enough to travel on one of the big passenger boats but he's more likely to thumb his way up and down coast by forestry or police patrol vessel or by one of the fishing craft if he's going to keep on schedule [Music] one of our worth is listed 38 different methods of British Columbia transportation by sea and by land ranging all the way from water taxi to an ascent of a mountain by cable car to reach a mining camp I above [Music] we've tried to achieve a broad point of view on rural welfare we feel that all the people in this province are entitled to the best social services we can provide no matter where they live and it's up to us to reach them regardless of race of creek because we have people of all colors and religions of Indians alone we have 30,000 their affairs are handled by the Indian agents but our workers visit the reservations on cases involving family members living outside it isn't always easy to get accurate information from some ancient woman who reckons years in terms of natural events such as floods flips have long ago then we've always had a large Asiatic population Japanese induce Chinese the Chinese quarter of Nanaimo dates back to pioneer days way visit their old-age pensioners but there isn't much mean of social assistance because Chinese fraternal societies do a good job of looking after their own people but the Deuter boys who present a problem they remain aloof one of their communal villages on Vancouver Island is completely fenced in for protection against rival do cabal group for a long time they resisted any recognition of government authority as part of their religion but one of our workers is now permitted to enter the strange colony until yurts it's a controversial question but here's one their confidence to a point where this group now recognizes old-age pensions and birth registrations because there are no marriage ceremonies among these people and a woman may have a child only by permission of the elders who select the father a child born in this colony as a number instead of a name and belongs to the whole community not to this part so our worker must register the first baby in the village of Archangel as Gabriel Archangel ovitch first a child of unmarried parents father's identity on pretty wilful film down is a long way from Vancouver the traveling child guidance when it comes to our community several times a year my name is Dorothy gen'l'men I'm the social worker here and I asked the Wilsons to bring Freddy to the clinic when new boy gets into trouble there's often a health problem behind us sometimes physical more often mental and if it isn't corrected he may get into trouble again that's why we had Freddy come to the clinic and why we asked his parents to come to because the public health nurse told me she thought some of the trouble lay with george wilson the father it was a health matter largely physical and partly mental but Freddie's personal problem was only one element although Freddie school Marx had fallen off the clinical test showed that he was actually above average in perception and coordination really a bright boy but there are things that even a bright boy can't understand without help a talk with George Wilson brought out the truth he was a sick man but he couldn't face up to the idea of going to a sanatorium because he thought he couldn't afford to quit work he tried doctoring himself took out his fear and anxiety on his family the home became so unhappy and insecure that the bewildered Freddie ran away from it so we sit down to discuss a plan of action there is a good deal of social assistance in our province for cases like this if the Wilsons are only known now we can do something and in the light of what we know now I'm very glad the magistrate didn't send Freddie to industrial school although for Joe Zangara it's a better place than his own home some people think of the industrial school as a prison but dick max will our social worker there says he likes to regard it as a sort of hospital max Hall works along with the boys so he can help head them the right way when they leave school he is an important link between the lads in the outside world watching Joe he learned something although Joel came from the city he was crazy about the country and fond of animals especially horses Maxwell thought there might be an answer in that [Music] I had quite a job persuading Oldtown McKeever to come to town and get fixed up with a new set of teeth ten years since he's been in Kamloops now that he's here I'm going to take him for a little Drive I've been telling Tom about the provincial men's home so perhaps we'll drop in there and look around [Music] I hope the keeper decides to move in here seems a sensible thing to do but he'll have to make up his own mind in our work we find it isn't a good idea to talk people into anything we encourage them to make their own decisions well Peggy it's a very big she loves her baby so much and does want to keep him but how can she she has a family of her own everybody has been advising Peggy to be sent to give up the baby for adoption so I brought the necessary papers for that it's done [Music] poor Peggy she's so young to shoulder so much responsibility but no one else can make the decision for her she has to make up her own mind George Wilson was at a crossroads in his life too but there was only one possible decision it's a long way from the Wilson home to tranquila sanatorium but we have a social worker on the sanatorium staff she had the link between patients and their homes through social workers in all parts of the province I wrote to her the other day to tell her that George doesn't need to worry because everything is going well on the Wilson home front [Music] we're supposed to be very objective and all that but I really enjoyed visiting mrs. Wilson and Freddie every time I call I'm impressed by the way Freddie is responding to the fact that he's now the man of the house he feels useful and needed [Music] he's a normal kid now the other youngsters used to find him hide to get along with but now he's counted this one at the game I don't think we'll have any more trouble with Freddie as for mrs. Wilson she's getting living assistance on the same standard they had before and she's happy because I'm able to tell her that George is getting better and it won't be long before he's home again [Music] [Music] I'm ever transferred away from the cantelopes office I hope they'll send me out to the caribou country class to the Old West al Scott the social worker up there used to be a bomber pilot after the war he wanted a job with a touch of adventure and a chance to do a little good in the world well this is it [Music] a rancher up there said he could give a good home to a boy who needed help so I'll wrote to our man Maxwell at the industrial school at Maxwell's scent of a boy named Joe this Joe was a youngster would be running away from things all his life some of us didn't think of it work out but max we'll head him sized up right jobs finding a little strange yet but he's working hard he's happy here the folks on the ranch like him I think he's found himself [Music] my territory goes partway into the caribou there's a good highway now following the route of the old caribou trail pioneer towns are going modern there's a case I've got a check here widow woman we helped her a bit after a husband died now she has a small store and tourist camp she's a kind woman said she wanted to pay his back by helping someone else if she could so Miss Lauren suggested a girl to keep her company and help out in the store so that's how piggy came here [Music] the villagers don't know Peggy story and what they don't know won't hurt them somehow they've got the idea she's been deserted by her husband I think the old lady who runs the store sold him on that anyhow she's more concerned with Peggy's future than Peggy's past and with the future of that baby [Music] I'm glad Peggy didn't sign the adoption papers she really loves her baby and that's good for both of them I wish all our cases turned out as well but they don't it's a big country and we're working with all kinds of people when I leave Peggy and hurry onto my next call it makes me feel good that some people are better and happier for what we do makes me feel at all our trouble and travel in this tremendous country is worthwhile it's good to know that people in trouble think of the social worker as a friend at the door we make mistakes like everyone else but we're helping some people over difficulties so they can stand on their own feet instead of being a drag on others [Music] [Music] well boy I could make half a dozen calls in the time it takes to cross that Canyon and visit old Tom McKeever yes that unsanitary old reprobate is back I thought he would like the men's home but not in too many people around he said none of trains he's a tired old nuisance and yet I'll miss him when he's gone [Applause] [Music]