PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 27, 1985,WHITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday w hitbyy..M.Publishing and Photography Inc. The Free Press Building. -11 Brock Street North, Second Clas mail Voice of the County Town MicheP.O. ox 20ht whitby, Ont.Regsraion No 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Psych'iatric advocacy a long time coming At any one time there might be as many as 400 patients living within the confines of the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital and it Is a life very much dif- ferent from that which most of us have come to take for granted. On the basis of an opinion ex- pressed by one psychiatrist, a person can be moved from the day to day world and shut away from everything he might have once considered OTTAWA - One of the reasons i am saddened by the indiscriminate hostility In this country towards white South Africa is that there are so many white South Africans who have been fighting apartheid passionately since they reached the age of reason. To dismiss ail white South Africans as whip- swinging racists is to dishonour men and women who are as liberal as any Canadian, and who have remained stubbornly liberal under the most diverse conditions. I think of Alan Paton, whose 1948 novel "Cry, the Beloved Country", is one of the greatest works of 20th Century fiction and as compelling now as the day it was written. i think of Laurens Van der Post, and the books he's written on his beloved bushmen. And i think of less well known liberal moderates like Tony Heard, who has been the editor of the Cape Times for about 20 years. His friends have been ban- ned and exiled. He is under constant pressure from Pretoria. He has been charged for quoting a banned person, and a number of times, prosecutions have been pending. His newspaper has been fire-bombed. His life has been threatened. Tony Heard is an African in the same way that we are Canadians, except that he is ready to risk more for the privilege. And within the last few days put it all on the line again. It is Illegal for the media to quote or broadcast a banned person, and the Cape Times has published an interview with the banned Oliver Tambo, one of the leaders of -the outlawed African National Congress, which has pledged to overthrow the white regime by force. The Times published the interview because it believed that Mr. Tambo's words were vital to a peaceful solution. Through the Cape Times, Mr. Tambo was able to tell white South Africans that, quote, "there is always the possibility of a truce. It would be very, very easy", he said, "if, for example, we started negotiations". But he added that before negotiations could take place, Pretoria would stAMa to free the jailed ANC leader, Nelson Mandella. What he was saying, in other words, was that if Pretoria does the right thing about Mr. Mandella, far and away the most popular leader among black South Africans, and begins meaningful negotiations, the ANC will lay down its weapons. Tony Heard believed that message was important enough to risk three years in a South African prison for carrying it. i think it is important too, from the safety of Canada. I doubt if i could continue to think it so important if i were in Tony Heard's shoes. his inallenable right. Shut off from the rest of the world a psychiatric patient might be deprived of control over his finances or denied the right to marry or divorce or to enjoy the custody of his children. Further, he can be barred from entering into any form of contract, driving a car or voting. To be relegated to this kind of half life is a bleak prospect but within the system as It presently exists there are avenues available to the patient which can ease the burden of these limits and considerably improve the quality of his existence. It was with this concern ln mind that the provin- ce first established the Psychlatrlc Patient Ad- vocate Office ln 1983. Last week the adovcate of- fice released its first report to the Ministry of Health and even a cursory reading leaves one with the impression that the province's psychiatric hospital n-patient population has been served well by the advocate program. The report states that the program has had a significant impact on the operation of these hospitals and on the level of awareness of patients' rights among both staff and patients. A brief overview of one of the case studies provided in the report serves to illustrate the kind of impact that the advocacy program can have. A 31 year old woman was admitted to a psychiatric hospital ln an acute schizophrenic state and psychoactive medication had to be withheld because the woman was pregnant. After giving birth the woman began her medication and the following day she was required to appear in Provincial Court and give evidence pertaining to her ability to be a parent. She had no lawyer and there had been no legal representation for the child. The infant was made a Crown Ward and later the woman could not remember being in court at all and was not aware that her child had been taken away from her permanently. By the time the patient advocate became aware of the situation the child had been placed for adoption. For- tunately the advocate helped to obtain a lawyer on a legal aid certificate and a few months later the Crown Wardship was overturned. This kind of horror story is no doubt one of the more extreme examples of the patient advocate's case load but there is little room for conjecture about whether or not the'patient benefited from the service. Psychiatric patients, like any one else in this society, have certain rights and these rights must be upheld. The Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office appears to be off to a strong start and we can only wish them every success in the future. foRfer H5Z5o0ý1 NI Wlr 4 j631 r M Og jOTiAA'I, Cog 5ULIItJ ý , As-IL' 1f MOIZI A RgE(t4LA 'rAj &,,HAL! mq