Acknowledgments T is writing and work took place on


the traditional and unceded ancestral lands and territories of the Coast Salish – (xʷməθkwəy̓ əm [Musqueam], Sḵ wx̱ wú 7mesh [Squamish], and Səl̓ í lwətaʔ [Tsleil-Waututh] nations, which were never surrendered. Revolutionary love to my Solidarity Team


who carry me back to the ZOF: Tara ‘Danger’ Taylor, Cori Kelly, Riel Dupuis-Rossi, Scot Kouri, Stephanie Saville, Sacha Médiné, Lana Fox, David Ng, Jen Sung, Prairie Chiu, Val Joseph, Janet Newbury, Wendy Wit mack and Stacy Leblanc. Mr. Peaslee helped again.


References Manuel, A. & Derrickson, R. (2015) Unsettling Canada. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines Press. Reynolds, V. (2011a) Resisting Burnout with justice- doing. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, (4) 27-45. Reynolds, V. (2011b) Supervision of solidarity practices: Solidarity teams and people-ing-the- room. Context, 116: 4-7. Reynolds, V. (2014a) A solidarity approach: The rhizome & messy inquiry. In: G. Simon & A. Chard (eds.) Systemic Inquiry: Innovations in Refl exive Practice Research. London, UK: Everything Is Connected Books. Reynolds, V. (2014b) Centering ethics in therapeutic supervision: Fostering cultures of critique and structuring safety. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1: 1-13. Reynolds, V. & Hammoud-Beckett, S. (2018) Social justice activism and therapy: Tensions, points of connection, and hopeful scepticism. In: C. Audet & D. Pare (eds.) Social Justice and Counselling. New York: Routledge. Tuck, E. & Yang, K.W. (2012) Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40. Retrieved from https://jps.library. utoronto.ca/index.php/des [Accessed 10/06/19].


Vikki Reynolds PhD RCC is an activist/ therapist who works to bridge the worlds of social justice activism with community work and therapy. Vikki is a white settler of Irish, Newfoundland and English folks, and a heterosexual woman with cisgender privilege. Her experience includes supervision and therapy with peers and other workers responding to the opioid epidemic/ poisonings, refugees and survivors of torture, sexualised violence counsellors, mental health and substance misuse counsellors, housing and shelter workers, activists and working alongside gender and sexually diverse communities. Vikki is an adjunct professor and has written and presented internationally on the subjects of ‘Witnessing Resistance’ to oppression/trauma, ally work, justice-doing, a supervision of solidarity, ethics, and innovative group work. Vikki’s articles and keynotes are available free on her website: www.vikkireynolds.ca


Context 164, August 2019


Holding onto hope in the midst of austerity: A staff response to serial cuts and restructuring of a


CAMHS Elizabeth Boyd I remember in 2014 the fi rst feeling of shock hearing that the trust intended to


delete all the heads of discipline posts (systemic psychotherapy, child psychotherapy, nursing and psychology) in the CAMHS I was working in as a systemic psychotherapist. T is was a signifi cant departure from the structure I’d grown up with in CAMHS and also represented a simultaneous loss of treasured senior staff . It seemed unbearable as a prospect. It followed losses of other highly-valued staff in the preceding years including 8b family therapists, social workers and educational psychologists. Each year, we worried about further cuts, so the period was laced with continuous anxiety about loss of staff . When deletion of the heads of disciplines and a move to a ‘functional leadership model’ was announced, I felt a sense of debilitating powerlessness.


The consultation The directorate produced a report


outlining the rationale for the proposed new structure. Everyone was invited to respond, and these responses were to be considered as part of the consultation. Initially, there was scepticism about the process: however, I decided to respond, and this decision was important in terms of my personal management of the stress the events provoked and the profound ways it changed the future of our service. I fi rst helped collate a response to the


consultation from the discipline of family therapy, then a collective clinic response. I also submitted an individual reply. I have refl ected on what prompted the layers of response I made and realised it related to a personal journey of ‘voice entitlement’ (Boyd, 2010). I needed to feel I had used all possibilities available to ‘voice’ my objections to the changes proposed. A colleague, Liz Bodycote, child and


adolescent psychotherapist, organised a meeting, which brought together a large group of staff interested in challenging the


process. We noted the irony of being referred to in the trust report as the ‘non-aff ected’ staff group because our jobs weren’t directly at risk. The assumption that because we weren’t losing our job meant we were unaff ected seemed a crass oversimplifi cation. It denied the impact on staff of losing senior colleagues. Apart from the personal loss of relationships, it was the anticipation of suddenly working without experienced and trusted colleagues alongside us. This group became known as the ‘non-aff ected staff group’. It was spearheaded by Liz and, in this process, we developed a strong bond of allegiance attributable to the shared feelings about the situation and a desire to be active in our response. After the consultation had fi nished,


the trust implemented the revised new structure. We achieved two small victories: an additional senior post of clinical team lead and an agreement that discipline leads would be identifi ed from the remaining work force. Essentially though, the plan hadn’t signifi cantly changed, and we lost all heads of discipline posts.


39


Holding onto hope in the midst of austerity: A staff response to serial cuts and restructuring of a CAMHS


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