Page A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December S, 1992

—

* ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 .

"TERRACE STANDARD)

Rod Link

Phone (604) 638-7283

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VERIFIE
 CIACULATION

Special thanks: to all .

our contributors and”.
correspondents for...
their time and
talents. . a

DITORIA] __

A healthy portrait

It has to be an uncomfortable experience.
Somebody from the outside comes in to
take apart your place of work and your job
and then publishes a report for all the
world to read. Yet that’s what hospitals in
Terrace, Kitimat and Prince Rupert faced
with the release two weeks ago of a review
of their operations.

Simply put, the review says the hospitals
could be run more efficiently, They don’t
need more money to provide a good ser-
vice. Instead, they should use more wisely
what money they have now.

That kind of thing is easy to say. Hospi-
tals are an easy target because of the
amount of money they spend. But putting
the health review into practice is another
thing altogether.

Hospital costs are driven by the number
of people who come through the door. Un-
fortunately, hospitals don’t have a lot of
control over this. So any move by the
provincial government to curtail hospital
costs cannot be treated in isolation. They
are just one part of the health care equa-

tion.

Hospitals must be treated as the last
resort. Taking alternate measures — short
of barring the door — to prevent people
from being admitted will lower their costs.
Those dollars saved can be invested in
community health care and preventative
programs. '

The provincial government has started
doing some of this. Unfortunately its hos-
pital budget cutting exercise wasn’t done
with a lot of explanatory groundwork. That
left people understandably upset and con-
fused. ——

The big picture tends to get lost when
those affected can see only the smaller
brush strokes, A work of art can turn into a
masterpiece when done correctly. If not, it
is merely a mish-mash of colour and
jumbled images. It is not too late to change
this. The hand that holds the paintbrush
can be controlled by all of us who live in
the northwest. A self portrait can provide
more satisfaction than a paint-by-number
outline. .

- Right hand turn

Don’t be surprised if you notice Skeena
NDP Jim Fulton’s signal light indicating a
turn to the right. There’s a growly moad
out there in voter land and with a federal
election coming next year, expect Mr.
Fulton to make the suitable adjustment.

Although Mr, Fulton is one of the more
professional and popular and electable

- politicianssin Ottawa, he'synotyonesto lay 5
back. “A surging’ Refotm™patty“in “Skeena”

that now boasts more than 500 members
who bonded during the referendum debate
has caught his attention. .

Mr. Fulton has largely been elected on
his personal strength and not so much on
the policies of his party. A credible right
wing leaning candidate with a no-nonsense
platform could give Mr. Fulton a serious

run at the polls.

So it wasn’t unexpected to have Mr.
Fulton take a swipe at the rabid environ-
mentalist movement. He objects to the tag
that B.C. forestry practices have made the
province ‘‘the Brazil of the North.”

In doing so, Mr. Fulton has also criticized
Colleen McCrory, one of the more vocal

leading lights of the . environmentalist...

during the 1988 federal election campaign
and then worked in his Ottawa office.

This is not to suggest that Mr. Fulton has
cut Ms. McCrory and her type adrift. But it
is a sign that Mr, Fulton has begun to posi-
tion himself in anticipation of a tough
campaign next year.

Problem

Taking medicine to improve

my health is ineffective unless
I can remind myself to take
whenI should.

I'm doing my best to take —
twice a day — a prescribed
drug that must be swallowed
with food to minimize the risk
of duodenal hemorrhage. If I
manage to take the fist pill

Through
Bifocais
by Claudette Sandecki jf

with pills

with breakfast, it may slip my
mind for the remainder of the
day, meaning I miss the sec-
ond pill,

* Or by mid-morning I can’t
remember whether or not !
took one at breakfast. Because
I dare not take one at lunch to
make up for the one I may
have skipped in the morn-
ing... You see how erratic treat-
ment becomes.

Medications of long standing
aren't a problem, Like don-
ning pajamas at bedtime, or
adding milk to coffee, taking a
dosage of a regular prescrip-
tion is automatic. Bedtime?
Wind the clock, gulp one pink
and two green pills with some
water, and off to bed.

It’s the new or short term
prescription I block out. A two

week antibiotic, or an anti-

inflammatory for an arthritis
flare-up.

Then, if a new drug must be
laken at a particular time such
as before, with, or after
meals... oe

Funny, we have diaries to
keep track of appointments,
alarm clocks to wake us on
time, cribbage boards to keep
score, but only family to jog
our mind about pill taking.

Except for birth control pills.
Because one day’s goof can
produce an eight pound
bundle, even young women

with reliable memories are as-
sisted in properly administer-
ing to themselves. A month’s
supply: of pills is arranged in a
wheel. Fake pills fill spaces
for the days when no drug
should be taken.

But folk like me, older with
memories less trustworthy
than they once were, are often
stuck taking more pills of a
greater variety. But do we
have help remembering when
we should swallow which pill?

I’m testing what I hoped

would be a fail-safe reminder ~

system. At breakfast I count
out two pills, swallow one,
and place the second one in an

empty bottle along with a nate

on which I write the date.
(This derives from corralling
all recipe ingredients in one
spot before measuring any-

“thing into a mixing bowl.)

So far this system works bet-
ter. Until suppertime. Then,
despite moving the pill bottle

during the day from next to.
the sugar bow] on the kitchen

table io in front of the cof-
feemaker, invariably as I sit
down to evening TV my hus-
band asks, "Did you take your
pill?” and I have to answer,
"No". P’ve forgotten again.
You’d think ihe tablets were
the size of CFL. footballs or
tasted terrible, the way I scrub
them from my memory. I need

a pill bottle with a microchip,
like a Barbie doll that says, “I
want to be 4 doctor." It should
beep like a smoke alarm in
need of.a new battery, or an-
nounce "Pill time." _

Andy why not? If Christmas
tree lights can play “It Came
Upon a Midnight Clear,’ or
kids’ windup toys plunk out a
recognizable version ~—of
“Rock-a-bye Baby in a Tree
Top,’”? why can’t pill bottles
talk or flash lights at selected
times?

‘Drugstores with computer
healthwatch files could in-
corporate a customer’s musi-
‘cal preference and perforate a
label that would play eight
bars of Mozart or Blue Grass.

I need more than a spoonful
of sugar to make my medicine
go down.

Vou only have Social Credit to blame for
thefinanicial mess..the high un employ
ment rate. the lack of foreign inves
ments. the unrest inthe labor
market,.the exit of industries. the
many lay-offs. the...

za for potting you

| | also
blame them

inthe

ariver’s seat!

Attack on AIDS —
band aid solution —

to serious situation

VICTORIA — "I’m meet-
ing some people in my office
in half an hour; want to sit
in?" M.L.A, Emery Barnes
asked me recently when 1

passed him in the corridor of

‘movement ‘in‘B.C. This is significant be-» lig Parliament Buildings. °, es

~ cause Ms. McCrory worked for Mr. Fulton What kind of people,

Emery?" | asked. "Folks from
AIDS Vancouver Island," he
said. “I’ll be there," I told him.
The exchange took place a

few minutes after Big Em had
reminded the B,C, Legislature
that Dec. 1 was World AIDS
Day.

"Communities have a crucial

. role to play in the eradication

of AIDS, not only in the care
and support of people with
HIV or AIDS, but also in pre-
venting the spread of HIV in--
fection," the NDP MLA for
Vancouver-Burrard told the
legislature. ot!

Emery also made an appeal
for compassion and under-
standing. People with AIDS,
he said, are not just numbers
and statistics. "They have
faces, families, ambitions,
dreams and aspiration, just as
you and I,"

At the appointed time, I
showed up at Emery’s office
and introduced to Dale ©
Weston, executive director for
AIDS Vancouver Island and
Linda Graham, volunteer co-
ordinator for the group.

What, Weston asked, made
Emery such an compassionate
and kindred soul? In his typi-
cal and humble manner,
Emery tried to explain that it
comes with an MLS’s terri-

-tory. At which point, I felt

compelled to set the record.
straight.

Emery, I told Weston and
Graham, knows from personal
experience what it’s like to be
shunned, When he began his
career as a football player in
the States, he had to stay at
different hotels than his team.
mates. Emery is black, all —

- seven feet, six inches of him.

From the
| Capital

by Hubert Beyer.

To be shunned is nothing

_ new either to people with

AIDS. When a Victoria
restaurateur, who has raised
more than $100,000 for all
sorts of causes and charitable
organizations in the past 10
years announced that proceeds
from last year’s benefit would

goto AIDS Vancouver Island, —

a lot of the regulars suddenly
discovered that they had other
commitments.

Weston said AIDS sufferers
still have to endure a lot of

‘discrimination. "AIDS is more

than just HIV infection. It is a
disease which is rooted in and
flourishes in homophobia,
sexism, racism, chemical de-

- pendency and poverty," he

said.

Graham told me she got in-
volved as a volunteer with
AIDS Vancouver Island be-
cause she felt she had to do
her part in fighting the disease
and changing public attitudes
towards AIDS sufferers,

"I’m the mother of a five-
year-old, and I don’t want him
to become a victim of AIDS. 1
don’t want him to die of that
which brought him into the

‘world,

I want him to grow up and
understand that people of —
every breed, colour and per-
suasion need help," she said.

Both Weston and Graham
stressed that AIDS is no
longer a disease of
homosexuals and dug
abusers, that AIDS‘has very *
much become a heterosexual
disease. ° ‘

And as AIDS gains a firm
foothold in the heterosexual

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community, funding to battle
the disease becomes more and
more urgent,

The current budget provides
fora total of $3.5 million for
HIV prevention, $400,000 of
is allocated to urban aboriginal
AIDS initiatives.

More than $500,000 in fund-

ing has been provided to
maintain and expand the Van-
couver Needle Exchange pro-
gram; an addition $265,000
will be spent on street out-
reach programs in Victoria,
Nanaimo, Surrey and
Kelowna. :

But considering the scope of
the disease, current funding is
no more than a band-aid solu-
tion. It is estimated that be-
tween 10 million and 12 mil-
lion people are currently af-
flicted with the virus. By the
year 2000, that figure is
predicted to reach 30 million.

Education is perhaps the
most important of any initia-
tive aimed at curbing the ~
spread of AIDS, To that effect,
the original version of the
video on AIDS which had
been banned by the Secred
government was shown in
movie theatres throughout

British Columbia last summer, °

seen by an estimated 300,000
movie goers. .
Drugs for treating AIDS.
have been developed, but they
are expensive and canal-
leviate the condition for a
limited time only. What we
need is a sure-fire vaccine for
20 years down the road, AIDS
will make the Black Death of

" the middle ages look like a
- minor health hazard.

Ee