Category Archives: Addiction

Addiction, Caveat emptor, Issues, Media, Provincial

Olympic Realities

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“There is nothing to criticize about people uniting in the pride and joy of their nation.”

Before issuing such a sweeping statement the author may have wanted to ask some WWII veterans whether they felt there was anything to criticize about the Germans and Japanese uniting in pride and joy of their nations to achieve their manifest destiny.

If the goal is simply to generate enthusiasm and attendance just hire the Rolling Stones to perform a free concert.

Of course it would be extremely costly but hey, cost is no object to generating enthusiasm and attendance – at least for those sharing the mindset of the author of the opening quote.

It is a mindset that ignores cost. Cost not simply measured in the dollars spent but including the consequences of using the dollars to have a blowout of a party, rather than to pay the bills.

It is a mindset focused only of the short term and thinking only of what feels good right now, ignoring the consequences of actions taken or being taken in its enthusiastic pursuit of that feels good high. It is the mindset of an addict.

In becoming a society seeking instant gratification, a society that takes the easy way out without regard to cost, we have become a society whose behaviours grow ever more similar to those individuals in our society who struggle with an addiction to mind altering substances.

Perhaps it is seeing the consequences of thoughtlessly enjoying the high and ignoring the consequences on a daily basis that denies me the ability to blindly, thoughtlessly ignore the consequences of spending billions on the Olympics and paying for those billions by making cuts to essential services such as Fraser Mental Health.

As the health region with the fastest growing population Fraser Health’s mental health budget needed to be doubled, especially after responsibility for addictions was shifted to mental health by Fraser Health.

To pay for the multi-billion dollar cost of the Olympics BC chose NOT to raise taxes but to forgo crucially needed increases in areas such as mental health services and budget cuts to already seriously underfunded services. We pay for our fun not responsibly by raising taxes, but by further burdening our children and our children’s children with OUR debts and by cutting services to the most vulnerable in our society.

The first round of these cuts resulted in programs such as the adolescent psych unit at Abbotsford’s new hospital being closed. There are still more programs that will have to be cut to meet this years Fraser Mental Health budget. There will be another round of cuts next year as the cost of paying for the Olympics continues to negatively impact the mental health budget.

These cuts are not just going to reduce the quality of life for those with mental illness and/or mental challenges or deny addicts treatment. They are going to kill people by neglecting them to death. These deaths will not be labelled as ‘Olympic Costs” but as suicide, or death by police officer or accidental etc. But they are ‘Olympic Costs’ because it is the program cuts to pay for the Olympics that will bring about these deaths.

How many deaths are acceptable as the cost of staging the Olympics in BC? How many deaths before there is something to criticize about people uniting in the pride and joy of their nation?

Moreover, how can anyone have pride and joy in a nation, a province, a city or a society that would consider the death of vulnerable Canadians ‘an acceptable cost of doing business’ in regards to the Olympics?

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

The author went on to expound:

“… but let’s also applaud what these athletes represent, and let’s appreciate community spirit at its finest.”

These would be the same athletes of who over 30 were disqualified for using performance enhancing drugs the day before the games opening ceremony was even held?

Athletes choosing to take the easy way out, to seek easy and instant gratification by winning without doing the work, so as to reap the financial rewards of winning.

This suggests that these athletes, this competition, are about winning at all costs with drug screening and doping waging a technological war between cheating; a war that attempts to have or create a level playing field.

The attitudes and behaviours of the athletes teach the young that only winning counts; that you employ any means necessary to win; that competing and doing your personal best is meaningless unless you win.

At one time the Olympics were about competition among amateur athletes but today’s athletes are highly paid professionals, working for the business that the Olympic Games have become under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee.

A committee that is noted for such applause deserving behaviours as wretched excess, greed, special interests, scandal, expensive perks for committee members, bribery, exchanges of favours, turf protection, extortion etc.

The Olympics have ceased to be about anything other than politics, money, big business and greed. Or at least that is what they are about for those who are not blinded by the glitz, glamour and the powerful Olympics Media Machine.

“community spirit at its finest”.

We are in serious trouble as communities, a country, a world and a species when the wretched excess the Olympics have become is considered as “community spirit at its finest”.

People turning out to donate, support and cheer on Terry Fox; the people who donate to, support and participate in annual Terry Fox runs; neighbours turning out to help their neighbours after tragedy or disaster strikes; the people who serve dinner in Abbotsford on Thursday nights to those who are hungry and homeless; Volunteers; these are community spirit at its finest.

That such drivel as “There is nothing to criticize about people uniting in the pride and joy of their nation” and “… but let’s also applaud what these athletes represent, and let’s appreciate community spirit at its finest” is what passes for journalism and commentary in today’s news media is a sad comment on what the news media has become.

That so many choose not to think about the myths and lies that are told around the Olympics, choosing instead to wallow in the mindset of addiction, of instant gratification, of ME – ME – ME and ignoring the consequences is why we continue to dig ourselves into an ever deepening hole.

It would certainly be more fun to ignore reality, join the party and ‘don’t worry be happy’. But I seem to be constitutionally incapable of ignoring reality and the costs and consequences of societies growing addiction to the high of instant gratification.

Addiction, behaviour, Consider, Issues

Penny Jodway Plaque

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I, I, I, I …

I have no idea what resentments Sharon Ross is holding onto so firmly that she is so agitated over the plaque placed in Penny’s memory. I do however know that the plaque was arranged and paid for by those who knew Penny. The plaque is not about whether there was honour in Penny’s life, but about the fact that people who knew Penny felt the need to honour their memories of Penny as a person, flaws and all.

Ergo, if Ms. Ross truly seeks an answer as to why there is a plaque for Penny and not to herself, she must seek the answer to that ‘why’ in her mirror, in herself.

Penny was not a saint and never claimed to be. Hence the questions: What was it about Penny that people who knew her for who and what she was thought enough of her to place a plaque in her memory? What is it about Ms Ross that that people who know her for who she is didn’t think enough of her to place a plaque?

Ms Ross might want to consider what it reflects that she is upset and complains about having to clean out the alcove rather than about the fact that a human being, a flawed and troubled human being, had to spend the nights in that alcove.

Or the pettiness and meanness contained in her comments on Penny’s son struggling with the scourge of addiction. While only a parent in similar circumstances can understand the pain of a child’s addiction, any human with empathy can understand just why “she wanted to keep young people off the street.”

Perhaps if Ms Ross would stop being judgmental and seek understanding, she would know that complaints about large amounts of taxpayer dollars being spent ineffectually trying to address a health issue through the legal system rather than the health system, should be directed to provincial and federal politicians.

Penny may not have been a saint but she never begrudged someone else what they had or got; accepting personal responsibility, not whining about, what havoc and pain her choices reaped upon her life.

A good look in the mirror and contemplation may enlighten Ms Ross to the fact that the plaque was not about honouring working on a corner downtown but honouring the effect Penny had upon those who knew her and honouring their memories of Penny.

Original Letter: http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/abbynews/opinion/letters/82640222.html

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Actually Mr. Scheirer it is your letter and your words that exemplify certain facets of what is wrong with our community.

Not everything that is wrong since ‘everything that is wrong’ covers a wide variety of human weaknesses, behaviours and sins.

The legacy of despair and destruction, of the way your neighbourhood is, does not belong to Penny Jodway. It belongs to you, your neighbours and the many other citizens of Abbotsford, British Columbia and Canada  who, in order to protect their ideology and beliefs, see what they want to see.

Unfortunately REALITY does not give a damn about ideology or beliefs, it just is.

It is the chaos that arises from within the differences between the factual reality that IS and the delusional reality our ideology and beliefs bring forth that IS NOT that brings about the issues and problems we are challenged by as Canadians.

It is understandable why those employed as the agency that enforced prohibition would wish to protect their livelihoods by finding a new ‘demon’ to pursue when prohibition ended in 1933. It is also understandable why, given lack of knowledge and experience, the public would buy into this demonization of other drugs as ‘demon rum’ was demonized to bring about prohibition.

Given our 80 years of experience with the futility of trying to address the issue of mind altering substances by waging war upon those who fall under the influence of mind altering substances; our knowledge and understanding of addiction as a health and mental health issue; we have only ourselves to blame for pursuing a course of action that attempts to solve a medical issue with the legal system instead of the health system.

It is choosing to ignore the reality that addiction is a health care issue in favour of pursuing the illusions many want to be, that effective actions do not get taken and ineffective actions are repeated over and over well past the point of insanity.

It is in our stubborn refusal to learn from the lessons in Penny’s life (and far too many other lives) that what is wrong with our community not only lies but thrives in. It is this stubborn refusal to learn from a reality we simply don’t like because it challenges or contradicts ideologies and/or beliefs that condemns us to repeat mistakes and have problems such as poverty, homelessness and addiction grow.

It is our own choices that prevent us addressing and dealing with these problems.

Penny Jodway was merely an evidentiary symptom, not a cause.

Original Letter:

http://www2.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/news/letters/story.html?id=e91434da-29ca-453f-81f2-2f73fa08c049

Addiction, Issues, Municipal

I hope Kevin Falcon was …

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I sincerely hope that Health Minister Kevin Falcon was lying through his teeth in his recent response to questions about cuts to mental health and addiction services.

If he actually believes what he was saying reflects the state of mental health and/or addiction services in BC … … there are a lot of British Columbians in need of those services who are *bleeped*, myself included.

The heat this summer had a serious negative effect on my mental state, leaving me struggling to return to the state of Wellness I had attained. Unfortunately there is a 10 month waiting period to get to see a psychiatrist; after you spend 11/2 – 2 months working through the backlog at mental health services to get referred to see a psychiatrist.

I have a Wellness Plan, tools and have built a strong support system and so I have a reasonable chance of not falling into a downward spiral during what could be a year long wait for services … with luck.

What would it mean to you or someone you know who, facing a mental health crisis, seeks help and faces a year long wait to start to get the services you/they need? What level of worsening does this delay cause in someone’s mental state and what does this do to that individual?

I was not the only person the heat this summer caused mental challenges for. I have heard from numerous others who, finding their mental state causing them problems went to the hospital to get help in order not to relapse and were turned away. Our local hospital’s mental services are insufficient to meet the normal day-to-day demands for its services; the increase in demand caused by the weather overwhelmed these inadequate services.

I could go on for pages on the service cuts (or as the Health Minister calls it ‘reorganized delivery’), the services that are simply not provided or how overwhelmed the services and programs provided are.

Fraser Health is the fastest growing health region in terms of population growth and thus demand for services. Exacerbating matters is the fact that for those on the limited support provided for people disabled by mental health issues, rent costs are forcing patients out of Costal Health into Fraser Health in search of more affordable, or at least less unaffordable, housing.

The budget for mental health in our region has not reflected the increase in demand. This year’s budget is the same as last year. While on a strictly definitional basis this is not a budget cut, in the real world that those of us who are not politicians inhabit holding a budget at the same level is a budget cut.

In a sensible move addiction services were moved into mental health. I say sensible because the growing knowledge base on addiction and addiction recovery has shown this to be more of a mental health problem that a strictly simpler problem of ‘addiction’

While significantly (doubling? tripling?) increasing the responsibilities of mental health, there was no funding provided to pay for addiction services.

It needs to be noted that Minister Rich Coleman’s ministry plays a role in increasing the problems for those dealing with mental health and addiction challenges. The unrealistic levels of Income Assistance and the lack of safe, healthy affordable housing significantly increases the barriers to recovery for those with mental or addiction issues.

Dealing with housing, budgeting or income assistance is a major stressor for people whether challenged by mental issues or not.

If you need mental health services you are well aware of the limited services currently available, the limited numbers and access to those services, the gaping holes in services and the problem of the time it takes to get access to services.

The lack of services and capacity is denying access to Recovery to British Columbians. It is costing the taxpayers of BC more tax dollars to deal with the consequences of people denied mental health care than it would to provide the needed care.

Sadly, twistedly, the mental health system itself, due to a lack of funding, proper management and leadership has become a mental health issue.

Which is why, although I am not a fan of the propensity of politicians to lie, I am praying Kevin Falcon was lying through his teeth in his statements on the state of mental health services in BC. The alternative, he believes what he said, is disastrous for anyone with mental health or addiction issues in their lives.

Addiction, Provincial

Homeless and Forsaken

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The suicide of Corey O’Brien was tragic, but the true tragedy of Corey’s Story is that nothing has been done about implementing the recommendations in “Lost in Transition” – the report on mental illness on the streets of Vancouver.

The BC Liberals and the health care system have failed to put these recommendations into effect; as a result the mentally ill homeless continue to be left abandoned to the mean streets, continuously adding new names to the list of forsaken victims.

While a tragic suicide such as Corey’s is an infrequent event, having a person in desperate need of immediate mental health treatment refused service and turned away is a weekly occurrence for the outreach nurse who ministers to Abbotsford’s homeless.

Except for those not infrequent weeks where more than one person is turned away, back to being mentally ill and homelessness on the streets of Abbotsford.

The other evening the nurse and another staff person stayed late trying to help the latest victim of the BC government and its mental health system. Struggling to get a young human being in desperate need of immediate mental health treatment, mental health services at the Abbotsford Hospital.

An ambulance was called and took her/him to the hospital … were he/she was discharged to homelessness – unable to care for or help her/himself; the police were then called and they took this individual to the hospital … to simply drop them off rather than staying and ensuring this mentally unwell individual received the care needed.

Dealing with the Abbotsford Hospital is enough to drive anyone to wanting to run away screaming. Someone having a mental health crisis will escape the madness by wandering away.

So, rather than being in hospital getting the care desperately and conspicuously needed, he/she spent the night in the stressful environment of the emergency shelter.

The homeless, by and large, have no support. No parent, sibling, relative, neighbour or friends to provide support or to advocate and fight on their behalf.

They must rely on those charged with providing healing or to serve and protect to discharge their duty with due care. When the healers and protectors cannot be bothered …

Hospital staff said to take her/him to detox.

Yes, he/she is an addict, suffering the burden of drug use. For those suffering from addiction, their treatment by hospital staff can frequently, at the very best, be called less than professional and rather haphazard.

No visit to detox was required. She/he was detoxed as the result of a mental state so bad, so degraded that it was interfering with his/her drug use.

This individual is so mentally ill that their mental illness was and is interfering with their drug use. Yet he/she was returned to the streets in a condition where she/he was mentally unable, unfit to care for him/herself; left to wander Abbotsford’s streets with decreased ability, capacity to function.

Government and society tells homeless individuals they need to seek help, yet when they seek such help they find there is no help to be had. If the homeless are to be told they need to seek help, it follows that when they do, the capacity, services and professional staff must be in place to help.

To get the homeless into recovery and wellness, it is necessary for the system to adjust to their needs as they lack the ability to navigate the current systems. The recommendations of the “Lost in Transition” report needs be implemented as a priority.

Another priority must be an attitude adjustment for hospital staff and police; while the homeless are more often than not frustrating pains in the ass, that does not justify less than professional behaviour on matters of physical and/or mental health.

The test of the soul of a society, its ethicalness and its set of values, is how that society and its government(s) treat the most vulnerable: those in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those in the shadows of life, those in need, the handicapped, the helpless and the ill.

Our failure of this test of character is written in the pain and despair of people like Corey or the young human being who is in such desperate need of healing.

It is time to make the wellness of people more of a priority than a convention centre, Olympic venues, roads, bridges and ideology. Time to recognize that the homeless mentally ill and/or addicted are wounded human beings.

Addiction, Issues, Media, Provincial

Help Wanted.

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What do you call the recent arrest of 8 senior members of the UN gang?

An employment opportunity.

Not a pretty reality, but reality nonetheless. A reality highlighted by police statements that the public should not expect these arrests to effect drug supplies, gang activity or gang violence.

That the arrests represent an employment opportunity should come as no surprise in light of what Abbotsford’s Chief Constable had to say about the lure of the lucrative gangsta lifestyle. Given our societies distorted emphasis on money and the things it can buy as measurements of success and a key to happiness no one should be flabbergasted by the scramble for the $$$ to be found in the drug business.

Indeed, given the reality challenged social and economic policies of both the federal and provincial government and our current economic recession, more and more heretofore honest citizens will find themselves faced with a choice between poverty and homelessness OR involvement in drugs …. Tough choice to find one’s self faced with.

Of course if the federal Conservatives or the provincial Liberals were in touch with reality Canadians would not be subjected to the Conservatives enthusiastically patting themselves on the back for progress made toward enacting legislation to jail large numbers of addicts, while at the same time substantially increasing time spent in jail.

Removing their ideological blinders and ceasing their naval gazing would perhaps allow the federal Conservatives and/or provincial Liberals to learn from the experience of states in the United States were they have been pursuing this lock ‘em up policy for a period of time.

The State of New York (and increasing numbers of other states) have abandoned this policy.

Why? It was gutting state programs across the board and literally bankrupting the state(s) to pay the skyrocketing costs incurred in incarcerating an every increasing number of people.

Faced with either significant tax increases or spending the budget, for the most part, solely to lock people up rather than on roads, social programs etc New York did what anyone with common sense would do upon finding themselves in a hole – stop digging.

Thus it is that after more than a decade of “locking them up for long sentences” New York and other states have stopped this insanity.
A wise decision in light of the studies evaluating this policy that found the only things the policy accomplished was to make incarceration a lucrative business, to drive states to the brink of bankruptcy and to criminalize addiction (which is a physical and mental health issue).

This is the current situation California finds itself in, hovering on the edge of bankruptcy and facing the need to reduce the prison population by 70,000 over the next 18 months.

The costs of building and funding prison spaces for 70,000 prisoners were so prohibitive California was not able to increase prison cells. Faced with a deluge of new prisoners California packed its existing prisons to the rafters. Conditions became so inhuman even the Bush appointed conservative US courts ordered the release of 70,000 prisoners to reduce overcrowding.

Like a true capitalist (as opposed to a Harper Conservative pseudo capitalist) the governor of California wants to repair California’s finances by recovering at least a portion of the funds squandered on a policy (lock ‘em up for years) that proved ineffective and contributed substantially to California tottering on the edge of bankruptcy.

To save the state from bankruptcy California’s governor has called for the legalization of marijuana. Between the taxes raised and the funds saved, California would have the funds to focus on the truly important issues facing the state such as ensuring a supply of potable water.

Given the results and experiences of US states following a policy of locking up increasing numbers of people for increasing lengths of times it is nonsensical, bordering on out-and-out stupid, for Canada to pursue a policy that has proven to be pointless and costly to the point of beggaring anyone short-sighted enough to pursue this policy.

Given Mr. Harper’s behaviour to date the probability of common sense and experience winning out on this matter over Mr. Harper’s ideology approaches zero.

So it was that the media circus staged by the Abbotsford Police Department in arresting Tim Felger seemed to provide an appropriate exclamation point to emphasize the futility of current policies vis-à-vis the drugs society chooses to label “illegal”.

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” Margaret J. Wheatley