On December 28th of 2015 I was diagnosed with ocular melanoma...eye cancer, on January 28th of 2016 I was flying back from Toronto after the successful treatment. One month from diagnosis to completion of treatment. In that time I was scanned and re-scanned multiple times, flew to Toronto twice and put through an emotional and physical wringer. I'm not complaining...I'm very happy it went that well that quickly...I'm alive after all. And I know my particular type of cancer, rare as it is, is not the norm for cancer treatment...weeks and months of treatments that are far worse than I could begin to imagine...Simon's treatment string of beads was in the range of 19 feet long, each bead representing a procedure...let that sink in for awhile. I had it easy.
My point in bringing this up is that the system jumps into high gear instantly at the dreaded "c" word, as it should...but why isn't this the case for mental health? Seriously...why? I was listening to the CBC yesterday and there was a discussion about a young girl getting diagnosed with schizophrenia and the treatment that she received. The established procedure was to get this girl into treatment within 72 hours...to see a psychiatrist within three days. It was over a month. How is this possible? How are we not investing in strengthening the mental health services and support? How is there not emergency staff on hand at hospitals to deal with very real mental health crises? Why can it take months to see a therapist? I don't get it.
I think the measure of a society is how we treat each other...all of the others. despite evidence to the contrary everyday in the news it is easy to treat the people we know with respect and dignity, but we don't do a great job of treating everyone in the same way. The marginalized, the poor, the sick...we can leave it all out on the field for a brother or a best friend, but that guy pan handling in front of Tim Horton's...avert your eyes. The lonely woman living in a half way house while recovering from an addiction...it's her problem, she made choices. That may be so and I have made assumptions in my life as well....although I try not to anymore, the simple truth is you don't know what path has brought that person to where they are now...there is always a story. But why should that even matter...they need help, are we not our brothers and sisters keepers? From Mr Mellencamp..."we shame ourselves to watch people like this live"....We can all do better. Our society can for sure do better...we simply have to choose to do so. The true measure of our humanity should be how we treat the weakest amongst us and if we aren't putting our resources into the places they are desperately needed but can give tax breaks to oil and pharmaceutical companies, well...we have problems.
Three First Nations girls committed suicide last week, all were between the ages of 12 and 14. And the barn doors are thrown open to bring help and counselling. That's great...a little late for them but thanks for coming. This is a system failure, not a personal failure...I know a few therapists, they are as dedicated and committed as anyone I know....but the system ties theirs hands too often, either through lack of support or misguided decisions. And then we have the chief of one of those tribes choking back tears trying to talk about the pain they are going through...right there in front of that flowing river....
We simply have to choose to do what is right and then make it happen. It won't be easy, it won't be cheap and it won't happen right away but it has to happen...we need to do it.
Beautiful sentiment, well said. Sadly, mental illness is not "sexy" ...heart attacks, cancer and tumors are. Stigma abounds in society around those who are mentally ill and yes even in those that treat the mentally ill. It's a complicate systems problem with many layers, but not unsolvable, and the tide is turning.
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