|Safety conference
ideemed success

Group
gives

support

DEBBIE lives on the North Shore,
and at 16 her future seemed
assured.

Friends admired her blond good
looks and athletic ability. Her ac-
ademic performance was good
enough to make university en-
trance a foregone conclusion. Then
things began to happen.

Fragments of disjointed
thoughts began to drift through
Debbie’s mind. Terrifying images
hovered, ghostlike, on a_ hazy
horizon and the first of many
full-blown attacks of schizophrenia
came to Debbie at age 19.

Debbie is 26 now and trying to
put the pieces of her life together.
She’s been hospitalized more times
than she can count. Now though,
thunks to a carefully monitored
program of drug therapy, she is
able to live in a psychiatric boar-
ding home.

All of life’s most basic skills
must be re-learned. Every task,
from taking a shower to washing
the dishes, requires thought and
concentration. Overwhelmed for

nearly 10 years by her own private
terrors, Debbie has forgotten how
to interact with others. Meaningful
personal relationships have long
since disintegrated under the on-
slaught of schizophrenia. Only her
parents remain and they, together
with mental health professionals,
help Debbie make her first ten-
tative social overtures.

Providing assistance in reaching
these modest goals is one of the
objectives of the North Shore
branch of B.C. Friends of
Schizophrenics (FOS). In coopera-
tion with professional people and
egencies, FOS reaches for more
and better opportunities for
socialization, recreation and voca-
tional training.

An equally important function
of the society is to offer
understanding and emotional sup-
port to relatives and friends of
schizophrenic patients. This is
done by means of ‘‘caring and
sharing’? support groups which
meet monthly.

For more information on these
meetings call B.C. Friends of
Schizophrenics at 734-3613.

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NEARLY 200 people attended the Safety ‘87 con-
ference on traffic safety.

The one-day conference May !, held in Port
Moody, was sponsored by ICBC.

Last year ICBC held a regional conference for B.C.
students at UBC. But this year the conference on
traffic safety was open to students and adults.

Organizers said they received a favorable response
from participants for opening the conference to
everyone.

The keynote speaker Bruce Gilmour, blinded in

33 - Wednesday, May 6, 1987 - North Shore News

an automobile accident in 1977, related his experience
to the conference participants,

Other workshops were entitled Traffic Laws, Driv-
ing for a Living, Stress and the Motorist, How to Have
a Safe Party and Still Have Fun, Insurance Advice,
Safety From a Racing Perspective, Peer Pressure,
Project Development ideas, and Police Equipment
and Advice.

The conference attracted between 20 and 30 dele-
gates from North and West Vancouver. Many came
from local police forces and from area schools.

TO CATCH THESE SAVINGS
BE AT ANY FANNY’

UVES?

S MAY 7th 9:30AM

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