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Page 6, Whitby Free Press, Wednesday, October 26, 1994 The only Newspaper owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents! MEMBER OF: g u ONTARIO CANADIAN COMMUNITY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER NA NEWSPAPER " ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION CANADIAN CIRCULATIONS CNA DIVISION AUDIT BOARD ISSN#0844-398X The Whitby Free Press is distributed free to 99% of the homes in Whitby, Brooklin, Ashburn & Myrtle as well as numerous public and commercial outiets in Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering & Port Perry. 27,000 COPIES DELIVERED WEEKLY MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE Canada $32 + GST • Outside Canada $75 + GST Published every Wednesday by 677209 Ontario Inc. Box 206, 131 Brock St. N., Whitby, Ontario L1N 5S1 Phone: 668-6111 Out of town: 1-800-668-0322 Fax: 668-0594 Doug Anderson - Publisher Maurice Pifher - Editor Alexandra Martin - Production Manager Printed on newsprint with minimum 20% recycled content using vegetable based inks. e Ail written material. Illustrations and advertising contained herein is protected by copyright. Any reproduction by any means for commercial purposes without the express permission of the newspaper Is prohibited and Is a violation of Canadian copyright law. Reproduction for non-commercial distribution should bear a credit fine to the whitby Free Press. To the editor..., . . . . .. . . .. . . .. CUTBACK..AT.P...H.H....TA A STEP backwards To the edItor: On behalf of the nurses of Whitby General Hospital, I wish to congratulate our hospital on their success for the past 25 years of community service. The article in your paper on WGH was informative and well documented. However, a major segment of the staff at WGH was not mentioned: the nurses. Nurses have a unique role. They are the front-line professionals, usually the first to receive patients in the hospital. The nurse is the person f irst seen when you are ill or experiencing a crisis or an uncontrollable event in your life. The nurse constantly assesses your health care needs on a 24-hour basis, evaluating your treatment and communicating with other health professionals. The nurse treats you as a whole person, physically, emotionalIy and spiritually, always incorporating in their daily care the needs of patients, families, and lifestyles. To the editor: On Tuesday evening Sept. 20, I was involved in an accident at Manning and Anderson. My three-month old white Sunbird was demolished but i survived. I keep reliving the incident and remembering the kindness of ail those involved. To the man whose fingers i held in a vice-like grip ta keep calm, to the man called 'Mike' who showed such compassion. (i think he was an 'off-duty' fireman), i can only say thank you with ail my heart for your help and concern. To the local fire department and Many of the nurses have been employed at WGH in excess of 20 years. They are dedicated, loyal and knowledgable, constributing a great deal to the betterment of both the hospital and the community. It is any wonder our nurses are concerned about the proposed changes at WGH? Over the past 25 years nurses have seen many changes. In order to receive the best health care possible, nurses are aware that more changes are in order, but nurses at all levels must be given an active role in the decision-making process, to allow these changes to be beneficial to the hospital and the community. We, the nurses, will always remain attuned to the concerns of the people of our community, the hospital and its livelihood. We can make a difference, and we do make a difference. For the nurses at Whitby General, Theresa Pritchard, RN President, ONA Local 226 the wonderful ambulance crew to the many local people who stopped to help, thank you. We have lived in other areas but my husband who came upon the scene said he had never seen such co-ordination and discipline of our wonderful fire department, ambulance and police. Whitby hospital should keep their emergency because they, too, were there when I needed them. To all of you, God bless, and thank you for helping me reach Sunday, Sept. 25 which was my birthday. Margaret Burden Whitby To the editor: Along with the recently announced $5-million cut to Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, we are being told of a possible closure of up to 100 beds and the cuts of several programs. One of those programs identified is the award- winning Schizophrenia Treatment and Education Program (STEP). ' STEP has 25 in-patient beds and 15 day-treatment spots. The focus of treatment is on yoùng people with schizophrenia. In the past 10 years, we have treated more than 1,200 in-patients and 100 long-term day-treatment patients, between ages 18 and 35, To the editor: The proposed 10 per cent cut in budget and 30 per cent reduction in beds at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital is going to affect the most vulnerable members of our society. The mandate of the provincial psychiatric hospitals is to serve those with serious mental illnesses, who often are unable to obtain care elsewhere. It is precisely this population that is going to be most affected. It is indeed ironic that the NDP government which claims to represent the downtrodden is the architect of these slashes to the mental health budget. A further irony is that while the name of the hospital is being changed from Whitby Psychiatric Hospital to Whitby Mental Health Centre, the hospital plans to abandon its community-focused care to return to an institutional role. Along with the closure of wards, simultaneously the hospital plans to forsake its function of providing assessments, consultation services, crisis services, and will be severely downsizing its community health services unit. This hospital is located in a region with the lowest psychiatric bed-per-population ratio. Also, the psychiatric services in Durham Region are heavily dependent on the direct psychiatric care being provided through Whitby Psychiatric Hospital and its satellite clinics in the community. While the government has been paying lip service to 'a reform of considered seriously mentally ill. The treatmenit approach on STEP is progressive. We educate, imparting knowledge and skills, and we empower the patient by helping them learn about their illness and begin to understand themselves. Patients report their improved quality ,of lite, self-esteem and confidence., In 1993, our unit director, Dr. Margaret Fothergill, received the Amethyst Award in recognition of STEP's innovative programming. STEP is acknowledged and recognized for its unique work, both nationally and internationally, by professionais who work in this specialized mental health field. mental health care, it is obvious that its policy of 'Putting People First' is one of 'Putting People Out.' While the hospital is celebrating its 75th anniversary and wili be moving to , a new facility in December 1995, at the same time the entire strategic policy of the Knowing this, we are left with two questions: (1) What is the sense of putting 'this award- winning program' on the chopping block of government cutbacks? and (2) Who is going to provide the necessary services to the patients and their families that weî currently provide? Will they sirnply fall between the:cracks? d We, the staff, strongly feelit is* irresponsible to the patient and the community to walk away from what the schizophrenia treatment and education program is and represents. A group of coincerned nurses from Whitby General Hospital hospitai is being drastically altered without the usual process of consultation and discussion under the guise of economic constraints. C.M. Shammi, President, medical staff, Association of Ontario Physicians and Dentists in Public Service 'Cancer" in care To the editor: The cutbacks at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital are another example of governments' inability to recognize the priorities. We are fighting battles on so many fronts (remember Whitby General Hospital?) that sometimes it seems the master plan is to get us so busy and confused that we won't be effective, and then the government can go ahead and do whatever it wants to. N that sounds paranoid to you, think again. Forming a groundswell protest against cutbacks at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital is difficult. Unless they have a personal experience with the valuable service of that hospital, most people would prefer to ignore its presence. After all, it is a reminder of how fragile the human psyche and the mind can be. The last thing anyone wants is to become mentally ill. If you have the misfortune of experiencing mental illness first-hand, odds are you- are -not going to talk. aboutit. After all, it's not a very socially acceptable subject and, unfortunately, there is, sadly, still a stigma attached to it. If these comments reflect in any way your feelings, then take a moment to consider that one of the first things to go will be the adolescent unit. Imagine your teenager in crisis, and having nowhere to go for help. Where will they land? On the street? For no other reason than that, let your voice be heard. There is a terrible cancer growing in health care. We are being told at every turn that we can't afford the heaith care we have. I wager that our tax dollars are spent regularly on frivolous programs. Those same dollars could be going where they are really needed, to health care. ft's time for all of us to shout, as they did in the 'movie -Network,' "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymorer JoAnne Prout Whitby (East ward candidate) Don't forget the nurses 'Putting People Out' Kindness appreciated More letters on page 37 i