A6 - North Shore News - Friday, December 13, 2013
VIEWPOINT PUBLISHED BY NORTH SHORE NEWS A DIVISION OF LMP PUBLICATION LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 100-126 EAST 15TH STREET, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. V7L 2P9. DOUG FOOT, PUBLISHER. CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES PRODUCT AGREEMENT NO. 40010186.
Private mail call T he fundamental weakness of Crown corporations is that they do not have to compete in the real world. That should be their strength, of course. But that’s hard to reconcile when, for instance, B.C. Ferries increases prices to the point that passenger-use declines and then uses revenue figures to justify service cuts. Canada Post, in its monopolistic wisdom, has taken the opposite tack. In an announcement suspiciously timed to the day after Parliament began its Christmas break, the postal corp told Canadians Wednesday that declining demand requires higher — much higher — prices. For good measure they are planning less service too. Perhaps the planners, we use the term generously, figure Canadians are inured to declining mail service: the end of Saturday deliveries, next-day delivery becoming the
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day-after-next delivery, the demise of rural route delivery. After all, we have accepted less while paying more for so many years, why wouldn’t we continue to do the same? Nobody seems to care that Canada Post enjoys the protection of legislation that prevents any courier company or rival service from delivering a letter for less than three times the cost of a stamp — that will cost $1 at the end of March. Despite this level of protection, Canada Post was on track to lose $243 million this year, until it sold its downtown Vancouver sorting plant.The Conference Board of Canada put Canada Post’s projected losses by 2020 at $1 billion a year. With this level of demonstrated incompetence, taxpayers should question whether the plan to extinguish all home deliveries within three years will stem the bleeding. In the Internet age, might it cost less to just privatize mail delivery?
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North Shore needs a mobile psych outreach team Dear Editor: Jane Seyd’s two-part Sunday Focus series, The Bridge’s Long Shadow and The Bridge’s Heavy Burden (Dec. 1 and 8, North Shore News) is a crucial call-to-action for the installation of high barriers or netting on the Lions Gate Bridge to help prevent suicide. But out of this arises another serious issue — the need, as a society, to address mental illness and to be proactive in getting people who are ill into treatment as early as possible. While a physical barrier on the bridge may prevent or stop someone’s fall, it does not treat the underlying causes of the person’s suicidal ideation, which brought them there in the first place.
Suicide, by its very nature, is unpredictable. The only way to properly address the high rate of suicide among those with mental illness is to adequately treat the underlying illness itself. Those with a severe mental illness who are decompensating or experiencing psychosis must first be treated in hospital in order to stabilize. Unfortunately, half of those with schizophrenia and a slightly lesser percentage of those who are bipolar 1 lack insight into their illness, a clinical feature called anosognosia, and don’t realize they are ill. Because of this, they are unlikely to seek treatment themselves. In these cases, involuntary
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admission is required. Many people, including some mental health professionals, mistakenly believe an ill person must be considered “dangerous” to be admitted involuntarily into hospital, but this is not the case. The criterion for involuntary admission, under the B.C. Mental Health Act, is “to prevent the person’s substantial mental or physical deterioration or for the person’s own protection or protection of others.” This provision allows for a proactive use of involuntary admission, where appropriate, which can help prevent tragedies such as suicide. The need to get people into treatment when they’re ill, rather than
guessing whether they’re going to commit suicide or not, mustn’t be forgotten. Another measure is also important. Many communities have a mobile, urgent-outreach team in place that travels directly to where the ill person is living to do a preliminary assessment and, where it makes
sense, call in a psychiatrist who can then sign a first certificate. This gets the person into hospital. A family living in Vancouver, Richmond, or Surrey, dealing with someone in crisis, has this option. However, the North Shore currently does not offer any form of urgent outreach. This, too, has
long been a concern for us. If anyone would like more information on these issues, or if you are a family member needing help, please call our Family Support Centre at 604-926-0856. Cheryl Zipper, president, North Shore Schizophrenia Society
Some gifts mean more at Christmas Dear Editor: I walked briskly along Lonsdale Avenue last Friday evening (Dec. 6), warmly bundled up as the temperature had fallen several degrees below zero. As I entered London Drugs, a middle-aged woman — clearly
shuddering in the frigid cold — was collecting for the Salvation Army. Her bell resonated in the glacial winter air. An elderly couple approached this saintly volunteer and inquired if she was warm enough. She responded that she had given her only winter
jacket to a destitute man on the street that afternoon. If we are searching for meaning in the Christmas season, we need look no further than the Salvation Army. Yes, there are angels. Barrie Street North Vancouver
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