Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health & Addiction. A leading-edge centre for mental health and addiction treatment and research in British Columbia.Supplied
Help wanted
Re “Promoting involuntary treatment of drug users is good populist politics, but is it good health care?” (Oct. 1): Of course, there should be checks and balances in place. The aim is to humanely ease suffering and keep society from descending into chaos.
Something needs to be done, but little seems to change. Throwing more drugs at those already addicted feels regressive. What kind of life do people have under the “do your own thing” policy that has been the norm of late?
With involuntary treatment people can be helped, despite their initial misgivings. They have a chance of recovery and assimilation into society as functioning and productive people. Even a bad day in a warm place, with three squares a day, would be better than a good day in a freezing tent, looking for a fix.
Yes, people do have the right to take drugs or alcohol, but they don’t have the right to put the lives of others in danger. Needles lying on park grounds or tent fires are signs that something is surely amiss.
Grace Bellefeuille Hamilton
There is another critical factor in involuntary care: anosognosia. This is a neurological condition caused by damage to the brain and is seen in stroke victims, people with Alzheimer’s disease and those suffering from severe mental illnesses. People with this condition have no insight into the fact they are ill and, according to the U.S. Treatment Advocacy Center, is the No. 1 reason people with severe mental illnesses stop taking their medication.
While the medical community recognizes the condition in the two former instances, it is often not recognized by the professional mental health community. As a parent with an adult child with severe mental illness, the use of antipsychotics, voluntary or involuntary, is the only thing standing between my loved one and life on the streets.
Mike Theilmann Member, board of directors, Family Alliance on Severe Mental Illnesses; Ottawa
While legislation already exists in every province and territory that “allows for people to be detained and treated if they pose a danger to themselves or others,” such laws typically presume that they will have a doctor to initiate the process, and require that near relatives or a guardian be consulted (sometimes also requiring their consent). The mentally ill people on our streets today are often estranged from family and have no regular doctor.
Nobody should be so naïve as to suppose that additional provisions regarding involuntary treatment can be a substitute for harm-reduction programs and other measures. But they should be one part of a solution.
Don LePan Nanaimo, B.C.
Re “Crashing down” (Letters, Oct. 1): My understanding is that harm reduction is meant to save lives and, if possible, provide an opening into treatment – if it is available.
While a letter-writer implies that individuals struggling with addiction today are the result of prescription opioids, people have become addicted to non-prescribed drugs such as heroin, cocaine and various amphetamines – and let’s not forget alcohol and nicotine – for centuries. They have used for pleasure and to escape both mental and physical pain. The difference now is that illegal drugs, cut with who knows what, have overwhelmed heath care systems all over Canada.
Illegal drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever. Is it even possible to stop illegal drugs from coming into the country? Is this where we are now, and will be forever more?
Heather MacAndrew Victoria
Let them decide
Re “Field Trip” (Letters, Oct. 3): Letter-writers argue that school field trips can include participation in protests or rallies, because they teach civic engagement in an experiential manner. The point of civic education, however, is to teach students how to analyze issues and, if they reach a conclusion, how to advocate for their position.
The problem with the Toronto school field trip (involving a First Nation rally, which included support for Gaza) is that the position was chosen for the students. They marched in support of the position instead of observing from the sidelines.
No matter how important an issue might be (and understanding that the suffering of people is important), schools should not be prescribing positions on issues or using school time for political or social activism. How is this different from teaching students what religion to follow and then taking them to a religious service to pray?
Liz Tinker Toronto
Financial faceoff
Re “Public money should not fund Ottawa Senators’ fancy new stadium” (Report on Business, Oct. 2): It is argued that municipal officials often incorrectly see a new arena as a shiny new toy and moneymaker for their city, while the reality is that public money comes to the rescue – I mean table – making this scenario one of the great scandals of modern sports, repeated in countless cities.
I believe a more realistic view is that modern governments, much like the ancient Romans, view these ventures as bread and circuses. Our governments keep their populations in a more or less complacent state by providing them with lavish entertainment and sporting events. These prevent the population from becoming bored and restless.
Go Leafs!
John Reilly Victoria
By any other name
Re “Pete Rose unashamedly ushered in the realpolitik era of sports” (Sports, Oct. 2): The death of Pete Rose has reignited the debate about whether he deserves to be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mr. Rose is the all-time leader in hits (4,256, a number that likely will never be surpassed). He played on three World Series championship teams and won three batting titles, to cite just a few of his myriad accomplishments. Based on those numbers alone, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
That Mr. Rose isn’t is because he was a larger-than-life character whose flaws were as outsized as his talents. He was an inveterate gambler, and that got him banned from baseball for life.
Nowadays, when every professional sport is joined at the hip with gambling, it’s the height of hypocrisy for Major League Baseball to continue to blacklist Mr. Rose. As a ballplayer he was without peer, and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Ken Cuthbertson Kingston
On a September night in 1985, I was about to finish my on-air AM radio shift at CJSB in Ottawa, when something came over the wire: Ty Cobb’s career hit record had just been smashed.
I read the 11 o’clock news with announcer Karen Dehn’s sportscast to follow. So, handing off from news to sports, I gave her this intro: “The great American poet Gertrude Stein once wrote, ‘A rose is a rose is a rose.’ But tonight there’s only one rose, and his name is Pete. Over to you, Karen.”
Ken DeLuca Arnprior, Ont.
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