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Wednesday, January 22, 1992 @

HAVE WE MISSED You?

if you have an upcoming event or a regular meeting and you want it listed in AftertHOURS, let us know.”

Call our entertainment reporter Donna Bertrand at 365- 3517, fax us at 365-3334, or drop us a line at P.O. Box 3007,

jar, B.C. ViN 3H4.

DEADLINE Deadline for

Friday at 5 p.m.

What’s on around the West Kootenay

CLUBS

CASTLEGAR Banjo’s Pub San Jose West Tuesday to Thursday, 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Kootenay Stew Friday and Saturday, 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. to midnight 365-6933. Brewskies Pub Paradise Alley Tonight to Saturday 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Exotic Dancers Mondays to Saturdays 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. Karaoke Talent Search Every Monday 9:30 p.m. Comedians Every Tuesday 9:30 p.m. 365-2700 Dexter’s Pub Karaoke - Wednesdays, 9 p.m. Sidewinder Thursday 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m 365-5311 Marlane Hotel Exotic Dancers Mondays to Saturdays Noon to 12:30 a.m. 365-2626 ROBSON Lion’s Head Pub Karaoke Wednesday and Saturday 8 p.m. to midnight 365-5811 TRAIL Crown Point Pub Eastern Breeze Tonight to Saturday 9:30 p.m. to 1:30.a.m. 368-8232 ROSSLAND Powder Keg Pub. Dr. Fun and the Nightcrawlers Friday and Saturday 9:30'p.m. to 1:30 a.m 362-7375 NELSON Boiler Room Nightclub Comedians Wednesdays 9:30 p.m. 352-5331:

ART GALLERIES

NELSON Neilson Museum Peter Valisek’s Fear of Flying To Jan. 31 352-9813 ; GRAND FORKS Grand Forks Art Gallery Siddiq Khan: Still Life Drawings and Drawing the Line: Children’s Drawings To Feb. 29.

442-2211

TRAIL. Trail Society for the Performing Arts Performance ’91 Oscar Wilde in Earnest Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m.

MOVIES

CASTLEGAR Castle Theatre Tonight and Thursday Star Trek VI 7 and 9 p.m. Starting Friday An American Tale, Fievel Goes West, 7 p.m.only Saturday matinee, 1:30 p.m. The Last Boyscout, 9:30 p.m. 365-7621 TRAIL Royal Theatre Tonight andThursday My Girl. 7 and 9 p.m. Starting Friday An American Tale, Fievel Goes West, 7 p.m. Cape Fear, 9 p.m. 364-2114 NELSON Civic Theatre Tonight An American Tale: Fievel Goes West, 7 p.m. The Last Boyscout, 8:30 p.m. Thursday Tales from the Snow Zone Starting Friday Star Trek VI 352-5833

Beta Sigma Phi (Exemplar) ist and 3rd Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.

Various locations

Next Meeting: Jan. 22 365-3114

Beta Sigma Phi (Preceptor) ist Wednesdays , 7 p.m. Various locations

Next meeting: Feb. 5 365-3401

Beta Sigma Phi (Ritual of Jewels)

2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.

Various locations

Next meeting: Jan. 22 365-6892

Canadian Cancer Society (Castlegar Unit)

2nd Monday of every other month

7:00 p.m.

Castlegar Health Unit

Next meeting: Feb. 10 365-6498

Castlegar and District Senior Citizens Action Committee ist Tuesdays, 10 a.m.

Next meeting: Feb. 4 365-8237 or 365-0085

Castlegar City Council Regular meetings

1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Council chambers

Next meeting: Feb. 4 365-7227

Castlegar Hospital Auxiliary 3rd Mondays, 7:30-p.m. Hospital board room

Next meeting: Feb. 17 365-6587

Castlegar Hospital Board 4th Thursdays

Hospital board room

Next meeting: Jan. 23, 7 p.m. 365-7711

Castlegar School Board 3rd Mondays, 7 p.m.

School board office

Next meeting: Feb. 17 365-7731

Castleview Care Centre Auxiliary

4th Wednesdays, 1:30 p.m. Castle View —

Next meeting: Feb. 26 365-3754

Christian Women’s Club 2nd Thursdays

Fireside Inn

Next meeting: Feb. 13, 7 p.m. 365-7728

David Thompson Stamp Club 2nd Mondays, 7:30 p.m.

St. David’s Undercroft

Next meeting: Feb. 10 365-5496

Kinnaird Women’s Institute 8rd Thursdays, 1:30 p.m. Next meeting: Feb. 20 365-5441

Kiwanis Club

Tuesdays, 6 p.m.

Fireside Inn

Next meeting: Jan. 28 365-2151

Knights of Pythias — Twin Rivers

1st and 3rd Mondays, 7 p.m. Masonic Hall

Next meeting: Feb. 3) 365-6149

Kootenay No. 9 Oldtime Fiddlers

Monthly

2:30 p.m.

Senior Citizen’s Hall

Next meeting: Jan. 26 359-7621

Kootenay Temple #37 Pythian Sisters

2nd and 4th Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.

Masonic Hall

Next meeting: Jan. 23 365-5282

Lions Club

2nd and 4th Tuesdays, 7 p.m.

& LEGION

Mon.- Thurs. «3 p.m-'11 p.m. Fri. & Sat. + Noon - 1 am.

“eentaee EMBERSHIP MEETINGS every third Tuesday in month 7:30 p.m. « THURSDAYS -

Bingo — Early Bird 6 p.m Reg 6:30 p.m. (Licence No. 772268)

+ SATURDAYS - is Meat Draws 4-6 p.m. GUESTS WITH MEMBERS WELCOME!

Sandman Inn

“Next meeting: Jan. 28

Regional District of Central Kootenay

Various times

Next meeting: Nelson, Feb. 15 9 a.m.

352-6665

Rotary Club

Tuesdays, 6 p.m.

Sandman Inn

Next meeting: Jan. 28 365-2780

Selkirk Toastmasters

2nd and 4th Mondays, 7 p.m. Selkirk College, Room B17 Next meeting: Jan. 27 365-6442 or 367-6549 Selkirk Weavers and Spinners Gulld

83rd Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. Castlegar Doukhobor Museum Next meeting: Feb. 19 365-5918

SHSS Parent Advisory Council

4th Tuesdays, 7 p.m.

SHSS Library

Next meeting: Jan. 28 365-7735

Strokers Club

2nd Wednesday of each month 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Senior Citizen’s Hall

Next meeting: Feb. 12 359-7480 or 365-3540 TOPS Club

Tuesdays, weight in 6 to 7 p.m., meeting follows

Next meeting: Jan. 28

Back of Health Unit 365-3114

West Kootenay Family Historians

1st Monday of every month 6:30 p.m..

Selkirk College Library

Next meeting: Feb. 3 365-6519

West Kootenay Naturalists Association

Last Monday of every month Selkirk College, 7:30 p.m. Next meeting: Feb. 24 365-4933

Royal Canadian

Tickets available at Legion.

@ Wednesday, January 22, 1992

OurPEOPLE

SCHIZOPHRENIA: The Stranger Within

Editor’s Note: The following is the first of a. two-part series on schizophrenia. Part I looks at the di , the people it affects and some common misconceptions. Part II will focus on what is cur- rently being done in and around Castlegar and what is being planned to help overcome the dif- ficulties faced by both the victims of schizophrenia and their friends and families.

eee Donna Bertrand NEWS REPORTER Mental illness isn’t something peo- ple want to talk about. It’s not some- thing the public gives much sympathy

to and it’s not something the public”

wants to deal with.

And that has got to change, says Evelyn Kristiansen, co-founder of Nel- son’s Friends of the Mentally Ill.

Kristiansen — who has lived with mental illness since her husband was diagnosed 23 years ago as a manic de- pressive — has set out to do just that.

The first step, she says, is increas- ing public awareness about mental ill- ness. In particular, she has focused her attention on schizophrenia — “the com- mon cold of mental illness.”

“Mental illness is not an attractive disease which attracts public sympa- thy,” Kristiansen says. “Public attitude is one of fear where they pull back and try to explain it away as a weakness.”

However, schizophrenia is not a weakness, she explains, but a biologi- cal illness of the brain, as for example, diabetes is a biological illness of the pancreas.

Yet a recent survey shows that 71 per cent of the public believe that men- tal illness is caused by emotional ill- ness; 65 per cent by bad upbringing; and 35 per cent by sinful behavior. An- other 50 per cent believe that patients can turn off their illness if they want to, she said.

Schizophrenia, the name given to a group of severe mental disorders, strikes about one person in every 100

— about 30,000 people in British Columbia alone. It strikes people in all walks of life but primarily young adults.

Kristiansen said people with schizophrenia fill more hospital beds in Canada than cancer patients, and almost as many as those with heart disease; more than patients with dia- betes and arthritis combined; 10 times more than those with muscular dys- trophy or.multiple sclerosis; 20 times more than people with cystic fibrosis and 30 times more than women with

breast cancer.

“Yet there is an outrageous discrep- ancy in money allocated towards re- search,” she said.

“In Canada, $100 per cancer victim per year is allocated towards research; $1,000 per person with MD; $3,000 per patient with AIDS; and only $3.95 per

. person for schizophrenia.”

Kristiansen said the disease garners such little attention largely because most people believe schizophrenits are uncontrollable and violent.

However the ne is far more of- ten characterized by the patient re- treating from what he or she perceives

- asa frightening and hostile world.

Farther, “many (schizophrenics) are very capable people,” she said. “In our history we have Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln that functioned very well. The ones that are in the institu- tions are the ones who have a more se- vere problem, but there are others else- where who are functioning very well.”

Citing her husband as an example, she adds, “He’s one of the finest people

I know who just happens to have a mental illness. It’s just like a real fine person who has diabetes or something.

“When my husband came out, peo- ple were just flabbergasted because it’s not something that shows, you're not out there ranting and raving.”

People who are able to cope outside of an institution are able to do so be-

‘ cause of medication and a support sys-

tem, like The Friends of the Mentally Il, which usually includes medical and emotional support.

However; those people are often re- luctant to “come out” because of public perception. That becomes a Catch 22 because the ones who can cope, their friends and families, are the ones who can change public perception.

“Patients, family members and friends have to come ‘out of the closet’ and start making more demands. The more we learn about the illness, the more control we'll have over it.” she said.

“Members of the community will see

and need to accept people in their

midst who are struggling with mental illness.

“It’s the same as accepting people with a physical handicap. We’ve made it possible for people in wheelchairs to be in the community. A similar attitude change has to occur with mental ill- ness. Then it won't be so strange or un- familiar to us.”

The most noticeable symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder or some bizarre behavior. Less obvious symp- toms include losses of interest, energy, warmth and humor. These conditions come and go and can vary in degrees of severity.

Schizophrenia can not be cured “in the true sense”, but it can be effective- ly controlled, Kristiansen said.

“Much can be done for a person with a mental illness,” she said. “It’s not easy, but it’s not hopeless either.

“We, the public, must become in- formed.”

Part II will appear in the Satur- day, Jan. 25 issue of The News.