TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013 THE TIMES
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WEB EXTRA
The Times online
abbotsfordtimes.com
F
A3
alling
THROUGH THE CRACKS
Found dead in a roadside ditch, family says Shaminder Brar never got the medical help she needed
ROCHELLE BAKER RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
“What I’m trying to get away from is some place I don’t want to be in.” riends and family of the young Michele Giordano, coordinator woman recently killed in an of the Warm Zone that serves apparent hit-and-run feel she street-entrenched women, said was as much a casualty of the health Shaminder was “family” and will care system as she was victim of any be sadly missed by staff and the car accident. other women at the facility. Abbotsford’s Shaminder Brar, 34, Her death is an illustration was found by a passing of how women motorist sprawled in a dealing with ditch along Riverside “It’s a place that is really concurrent Road the morning of mental health lonely, a place that is Feb. 18. and drug Police believe she painful. You don’t really problems fall may have been struck through the anytime from when belong anywhere and gaps in the she was last sighted health care you’re not what people on Saturday, Feb. 16 at system. 8 p.m. and early-morn- are looking for.” “My first ing on the day she was reaction to discovered. hearing of Sham’s death – Shaminder Brar hit-and-run victim was one of overwhelmHowever, Shaminder had been reported ing sadness but also of missing to police by rage,” said Giordano. friends and outreach “She was a classic workers in downtown example of someone Abbotsford as early as falling through the Feb. 12. cracks in the health Sh a m i n d e r, w h o system. If she had only struggled with menb e e n re c e i v i n g t h e tal health and addicproper support and tion issues and lived care that she needed, on and off the streets rather than wandering for years, talked to the the streets in the dark Abbotsford-Mission alone.” Times in April, 2008. In general, women At that time, the facing a duel diagnosis young woman who don’t get the help they frequented the Jubineed in psychiatric lee Park area described wards because of their what life on the street substance abuse issues, was like. but neither will treat“It’s a place that is really lonely, a ment programs intake women until place that is painful. You don’t really their mental health issues have been belong anywhere and you’re not what stabilized, said Giordano. people are looking for,” she said. “It’s always a struggle to get women Shaminder, who tried leaving drugs struggling with multiple barriers the behind in the past, was not hopeful her support they need,” she said. life would get better. Shaminder’s younger brother, Gur“I don’t think I could turn my life vinder, posted a Facebook message around if I got off the drugs,” she said. to friends this week saying the health
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c a re s y s t e m had failed his sister and devastated her family. He documented Shaminder’s transformation from a bright high school student to a promising a college student with a job and savings, whose life then began to unravel as her addiction and mental health issues progressed. It was difficult for his parents to keep Shaminder, who was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder and later with schizophrenia, on her medication and stop her from mixing them with street drugs and alcohol. In the days following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the world trade centre in New York, Shaminder talked of hearing voices in her head that told her to kill her family to prevent them from being tortured to death by terrorists. “My father and mother pleaded with the doctors to put her in a rehabilitation center where medication will be monitored and alcohol and banned substances will not be present and she could get the proper treatment,” wrote Gurvinder . But after stabilizing a couple weeks
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Shaminder Brar, 34, was found by a passing motorist dead in a ditch along Riverside Road on the morning of Feb. 18. Abbotsford Police are investigating and appealing for witnesses in the apparent hit-and-run. But family and friends say the young woman’s death is ultimately the symptom of a failing health care system that cannot help people who have mental health and substance abuse issues. Shaminder spoke to the Times about her challenges back in April, 2008 (above).
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