Whispers - A collection of poems by Brian Malay

Published by Gaspereau Press, Whispers is a collection of poems written between 2000 and 2009 by Brian Malay (1983-2010).

Compiled and edited after his death, Whispers provides insight into the joy of what it means to be fully alive and seeking answers to everyday mysteries, as well as the pain and sorrow of Brian’s truly exceptional nature.

From his early years until the last days of his life, Brian expressed himself through his writing. He was an imaginative free thinker whose poetry reflects a keen sense of his own world and the world about him.

Although Brian lived with schizophrenia, his diagnosis did not disable him; conversely, he worked harder at his writing and discovered it to be a wonderful expression of his creativity. Ultimately, poetry simply flowed from him, thus making him a true master of the written word.

Brian’s mother, Cindy Crowell, is kindly donating proceeds from the sales of Whispers to the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia.

To place an order for Whispers, please mail a $20.00 cheque made out to the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, along with the address to which the book should be shipped, to:

Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia
Room B23, E.C. Purdy Building
P.O. Box 1004, Station Main
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B2Y 3Z9

Orders with payment by credit card are also accepted. Please call the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia at (902) 465-2601 or 1-800-465-2601 (toll-free in Nova Scotia).


Portrait of Brian Malay by Jared Malay. Please click on the image to magnify it.

Hyde’s partner praises inquiry findings

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

By Clare Mellor

Karen Ellet [pictured] says she still mis­ses Howard Hyde’s amazing voice.

“I miss his voice, his beauti­ful singing voice," the Dart­mouth woman said Thursday.

Ellet, who was Hyde’s com­mon- law wife, said she has been dealing with her grief since he died on Nov. 22, 2007, after a violent conflict with jail guards at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

But she is taking comfort in the recommendations result­ing from the provincial inquiry into his death.

If the suggestions outlined in a report released Wednesday are adopted, they will make a huge difference in the way mentally ill people in crisis are dealt with, Ellet said.

“I am very pleased. She is a very compassionate judge," she said of Anne Derrick, the provincial court judge who helmed the 11-month fatality inquiry.

She said Hyde would be pleased with Derrick’s report, too.

“He would be ecstatic about it," Ellet said. “He would like to see (the recommendations) implemented, so the (report) is not sitting on a library shelf."

In her report, Derrick rejected a medical examiner’s conclusion that Hyde died of excited delirium and found in­stead that the struggle with the jail guards played a role in his death.

Hyde, a 45-year-old musician who was diagnosed with schizo­phrenia in his 20s, was having a psychotic episode at the jail when he was forced to lie on his stomach with his hands behind his back. The restraint technique may have interfered with his ability to breathe, Derrick found.

“He did not die because he was mentally ill," she wrote in her report.

Ellet said she still has difficulty thinking of the emotional and physical pain that Hyde endured in the last 30 hours of his life.

On the night of Nov. 21, 2007, Ellet called a crisis hotline to complain that Hyde had assault­ed her while in a psychotic state.

Police arrested Hyde, but not before Ellet told them her hus­band had not been taking his medication and needed psychiat­ric help.

“Howard didn’t understand why he was in jail," she said. “He couldn’t comprehend his sur­roundings."

Ellet said she has been keeping a low profile due to her grief, but she believes it is important for her to speak up about the changes she thinks Hyde would have wanted to see in the justice system and in society at large.

“I believe he would want to have a professional such as a mental health provider to be with people who have a mental illness when they are in crisis, to speak on behalf of them," she said.

Ellet said Hyde would want all professionals to be issued hand­books so they could learn more about the signs and symptoms of mental illness and how to handle somebody who is having a psy­chotic episode. “Howard would want more housing available (for mentally ill people)," she said. “Howard found it horrific to know that people with mental illness are living in shelters and on the streets. It really upset him. He wished he could have done something but he didn’t know what to do."

Ellet said Hyde also would have wanted more research into the development of psychiatric drugs.

“Not all medications agree with each particular person," she said. “There are so many side­effects."

More mental health funding and clubhouses, support groups and associations in support of the mentally ill would also be on Hyde’s list, Ellet said.

“I believe there is a large amount of fundraising that can make miracles happen to help (prevent) people with mental challenges from living on the streets," she said.

“Mental illness is no different from somebody walking around with diabetes."

Some of Derrick’s recommen­dations concern stun guns — she said they should not be used on people in a state of agitation due to a psychological disturbance, and changes should be made in the training for how to use them.

The judge also recommended that crisis intervention training be provided to all correctional officers at the Dartmouth jail and that several aspects of training in general be improved for jail guards in the province and for front-line police officers and doctors.

Ellet said it is poignant that the report on Hyde’s death came out on the 30th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon.

Hyde, who sang and played the saxophone, was also an extraor­dinary musician, she said.

“Howard had the musical ability to play anything," she said. “He had the most astound­ing voice you can imagine."

Also like Lennon, Hyde de­spised war. “He just wanted peace in the world," Ellet said.

(cmellor@herald.ca)

Also see:

N.S. to factor Hyde inquiry into mental health plan


Photo credit

Sources of Revenue for Nonprofit Mental Health and Addictions Organizations in Canada

The abstract of an article published in the October 2010 edition of Psychiatric Services:

By Carissa Escober-Doran, B.S.N., M.P.A., Philip Jacobs, D.Phil., C.M.A. and Carolyn Dewa, M.P.H., Ph.D.

Ms. Escober-Doran and Dr. Jacobs are affiliated with the Institute of Health Economics, 10405 Jasper Ave., Suite 1200, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3N4, Canada (e-mail: escober@ualberta.ca). Dr. Dewa is with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario.


OBJECTIVE:

In Canada charitable or nonprofit organizations provide government-contracted mental health and addictions services, and they augment government funding by raising charitable revenues. This study estimated by source the revenues of nonprofit mental health and addictions organizations in Canada.

METHODS:

A list of nonprofit, service-providing organizations in Canada was developed, financial returns to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2007 were obtained, and data were analyzed in aggregate.

RESULTS:

Information was obtained from 369 Canadian organizations, which had $915.4 million (Canadian dollars [CAD]) in total revenues: 85% were from the government, 4% were from charitable giving, and 11% were from other sources.

CONCLUSIONS:

The ratio of charitable giving to government funding of mental health care was about 0.55% ($35 million to $6.3 billion CAD). This charitable giving level cannot compensate for the relatively low levels of total government mental health spending identified in government reports.

Posting of this abstract is for the purposes of research into funding of nonprofit mental health organizations.

Summer party raises thousands to help homeless

Posted today on myKawartha.com:

By Lois Tuffin

The two worlds couldn't be further apart.

Mentally ill people living on the streets. The ultra wealthy on a manicured lawn, dropping $20 bills on raffle tickets then bidding thousands of dollars on auction items.

These two worlds crossed paths Saturday night as Farsad Kiani and Joan Bush opened their north-end property to 417 guests in hopes of raising $100,000 to support a program that supports street people with mental illness so they can move into stable housing and get help for their addictions and health problems. Mr. Kiani is president and CEO of Ensil International Corporation, an electronics engineering company whose Canadian head office is based in Markham.

He hosts fundraisers at his farm regularly, supporting the Alzheimer Society, Princess Margaret Hospital and other health-related charities. However, he turned his attention to the Peterborough branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) when he learned one of its vital programs was in jeopardy if not funded.

The Peterborough Homelessness Outreach and Support Project's two case workers, nurse practitioner, registered nurse and trustee work with clients to secure housing, basic health care, mental health and addictions services to break the cycle of repeated visits to the shelters. In the past year, it has served more than 200 clients and has moved 90 of them into proper homes.

The program was facing a $115,000 shortfall next year.

When Mr. Kiani learned about the gap, he decided to host a summer lawn party to bridge it.

"People on the streets would be on their own," he says. "That's not the kind of community we want to live in."

To read the entire article, please click here.

Targeted funding misses core areas

From the December 15th edition of the Times Colonist:

It would be a great loss if valuable agencies such as the B.C. Schizophrenia Society had to slash services -- or even close -- as an unintended consequence of a provincial government funding policy and the economic downturn.

One of the Liberal government's policy shifts after the 2001 election was a move from block funding to non-profits across the province to targeted program funding.

Where the government had reviewed an organization's overall operations and decided on an appropriate level of public funding, it adopted a new approach.

Non-profits could apply for money to cover the direct costs of specific programs. For anything else, they were on their own.

There are merits to the approach. The government has more control on how the money is used and can assess value for money spent more directly. It can set priorities, rather than leaving it up to the local non-profit to assess community needs. And ministries know where their contribution is being spent.

But the shift also created problems. Non-profits' core expenses -- rent, basic administration staff, fundraising, newsletters and programs not covered by the province -- were no longer funded. The expenses were necessary to maintain the organization, but the funding formulas didn't acknowledge that reality.

And the agencies lost the flexibility that allowed them to react to emerging needs by shuffling funding. If there was a spike in the need for services for seniors suffering from schizophrenia, for example, in the past the society could have shifted money from another program. That was no longer allowed by government.

Most rose to the challenge by seeking donations or holding fundraisers to cover core expenses. That was difficult, because donors -- like government -- respond more enthusiastically to appeals for money to support specific programs.

To read the entire article, click here.

Also see:

Sinking into debt, health care non-profits fight for survival

Image courtesy of the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society (click on the image to enlarge it).