Letters, Sept. 14

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This article was published 14/09/2022 (1360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reconsidering mental illness

Re: Re-examining what mental illness means (Opinion, Sept. 12)

Alex Passey writes that some of the conditions we treat as mental illness, such as anxiety, are actually a perfectly reasonable reaction to the world we live in. He questions whether some neurological divergences, including autism or schizophrenia, should be considered “diseases,” or if we simply dismiss them as such because they do not have a complementary role in the dominant social paradigm.

I believe Passey offers an incredibly powerful and insightful message about how we define and treat individuals with mental illness. I would go a step further to suggest that the point of origin of mental illness for the individual should define why it emerges: to this end, I often believe my “disorders” are in fact evolutionary defences.

If people have much trauma in the past, we should understand that socially isolating away from interpersonal interaction is the default behaviour to avoid pain. On the other hand, if people like me have good or excellent experiences with people who do not judge, then I am more likely to be outgoing and friendly in reciprocation during interpersonal interactions.

In short, treat me badly, I hide; treat me well, I reside.

Ergo, mental illness may seem to be a disorder but may also be evolution at work, navigating the pleasure-pain principle psychologically and sociologically. What often occurs economically is exclusion that makes life much more difficult than upward social mobility should be.

David Albert Latta Newman

Winnipeg

Winnipeg-based author Alex Passey tells us we need to re-examine exactly what “healthy” means in his well-written and well-researched article on mental illness.

Welcome to the therapeutic state, Mr. Passey. We do our soul-doctoring in medical-sounding terms in 2022 to meet the intellectual expectations of our time. In short, since the separation of church and state, when politicians lost control of your soul, they have made up with control of your body through marriage to medicine. The doctor now stands on the pedestal of esteem formerly reserved for priests in the theologic state from which we evolved.

Good on the editors of the Free Press for even permitting a challenge to the medical model of mental illness. The moral model never lost persuasion; it lost the legal battle that empowered psychiatry’s medical model, which has fallen short of serving the spiritual needs of the people by applying stigmatizing labels to unconventional behaviours that serves the industry rather than the people who have problems in living.

The bottom line is that if Parliament and the legislature were to abolish their mental health acts, mental illnesses would be understood to be spiritual maladies rather than medical matters. People with so-called mental illness need soul doctors rather than medical doctors. The last thing in the world those people need are stupefying “medicines.”

Chris Buors

Winnipeg

Gordon’s love seat secretive

Re: Quiet start to health minister’s travelling sofa tour (Sept. 13)

Health Minister Audrey Gordon has officially begun her much-vaunted sofa tour for the “summer” of 2022. We found out inclement weather stalled the first attempt; we now find out the sofa is really a love seat.

As usual for this government, details are sparse and secretive. Gordon “pops up” to talk with passersby who had no idea she was going to be there.

Of course, the major stakeholders, such as health-care professionals, were not in attendance. There are no details as to when the tour will continue.

My guess is that as the weather gets cooler and possibly rainier, the sofa tour will mysteriously disappear, much like the Tories’ promise to fix the health-care backlog for surgeries.

Ken Campbell

Winnipeg

Why lower U.S. flag?

Re: Queen’s coffin heads to Buckingham Palace (Sept. 13)

It was at the same time funny and disappointing as I drove past the Clarion Hotel on Portage Avenue to see that its proprietors had lowered the American flag to half-mast, a complete lack of comprehension coupled with absent management or poor direction.

Robert Collings

Winnipeg

Poilievre’s claims unrealistic

Re: Why does Poilievre appeal to young Canadians? (Sept. 13)

Much has been said recently about Pierre Poilievre’s ability to capture the hearts and minds of younger voters, and really, what’s not to like? He’s claiming to solve all their problems instantly upon being elected and offers wild promises such as tearing down regulators, destroying Canada’s only publicly funded source of news and firing boomers such as Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem.

I’m sure younger voters have no clue what the Bank of Canada does. All they know is they can’t find suitable employment and can’t afford a house, and this guy Poilievre is telling them all their dreams will come true if only they vote for him.

The fact is there are no quick solutions to our multitude of problems. If there were magic bullets, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals would have used them by now.

Poilievre’s plan seems to be to wring rational thought out of his voters by making them so angry, so enraged, that critical-thinking skills go out the window. It’s the same playbook Trump used.

Will Jones

Winnipeg

Care-home criteria faulty

Re: What you need to know about personal care home eligibility (Sept. 12)

The article refers to the cost of long-term care by stating, “The majority of these costs for these services (care home fees) are paid by the provincial government with the client paying a daily charge based on income as assessed by the Canada Revenue Agency.”

Maybe the model of payment needs to be amended so an individual’s asset wealth is used before it becomes solely income-based. It’s safe to assume that prior to entering a care facility, many individuals lived in a family home that had value and which may have been sold when they moved into care. They may also have had a cottage, RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs or other savings.

So, the question is: where has the value of that capital gone, if there was any? Why isn’t it used to pay the fees before the federal and provincial support steps in?

I don’t think it’s fair for care recipients to expect to depend on government support when they are older if they have already divested themselves of significant assets that could have been used to pay for their lifestyle later in life. Maybe the province should be looking into the history of a person’s assets before subsidizing their living arrangements from the public purse.

Bob Sales

Winnipeg

Dread of clowns common

Re: Winnie-the-Pooh besmirched (Letters, Sept. 12)

The upcoming Winnie-the-Pooh horror film has prompted letter writer Rudy Ambtman to ask, “Is there no end to adults’ attempts to spoil innocence?”

I wouldn’t dispute his central point, having once campaigned feebly against the pre-teen dances held at my kids’ elementary school.

But Ambtman goes on to also blame other horror movies for the fear of clowns and dolls. It doesn’t require much imagination, or help from Hollywood, to feel a certain amount of dread upon seeing a clown.

After all, we’re not saturated in lore about a serial-killing Santa Claus, but how many kids have wept in terror in his lap?

Mark Doerksen

Winnipeg