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Odds and Ends, mostly Ends - Page 2

© Ian Chovil

I have become preoccupied by my employment and other local volunteer commitments to do the research to write this column. I don't spend a lot of time searching the web for new sites on schizophrenia. One of the adjustments I have had to make in my life because of schizophrenia is getting used to not doing much reading. I come from a reading family where everyone would be reading during breakfast, and in the evening after supper. I can only read so much. My mother kept sending me interesting books she had read, and some were really interesting like the history of technology beginning with the clock, and how technology has reflected the course of human social evolution. I started that one but I haven't finished many books in the last ten years and I didn't finish that one either. I think I learn new things now by osmosis mostly.

I know some people with schizophrenia who are voracious readers. I don't really understand why I can't. I always thought it was one of the more minor adjustments I had to make to live with schizophrenia; certainly less demanding than celibacy, poverty and social isolation, but it keeps coming back. When I walk into a bookstore I get excited at all the information there, and then gradually depressed as I realize that I can't read it, and I can't afford it. But there are people with schizophrenia who can do the reading required for this column and I'm hoping one of them will step up and take my place in Suite 101.

In Ontario one of the most coveted outcomes of mental illness is community integration. Effective treatment of mental illness is great, but it doesn't mean much if the individual can't reintegrate in the community and become a part of that community. One of the greatest problems of schizophrenia has always been that it is so disabling, people lived very marginal lives on disability benefits on the fringes of society. In a way they were still homeless because they couldn't participate in the community.

I got a phone call the other day from the mayor of Guelph, first time actually. I am to be one of the recipients of the 2001 Mayor's Awards. There are four given each year. I was a bit surprised because I don't travel much outside of the mental health business. When I thought about it though I realized that this is really something. For someone with a disabling mental illness, and schizophrenia is about as disabling as it gets, to be recognized by their mayor with an award for their contribution to the community, not just the mental health community, but the whole city - well it doesn't get any better than that if your goal is community integration. It says a lot about Guelph, which does have the nicest homeless shelter I've ever stayed in. It says a lot about the opportunities that have been created here for me that I have tried to take advantage of. It says a lot about the state of the stigma of schizophrenia. As the Beatles sing in their song, "It's getting better all the time".

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