6 ~ Wednesday, February 19, 1986 - North Shore News THE VOICE OF NHOWTH AND WEST VANCOUVER Publisher: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Operations Manager Advertising Oirector Peter Speck Noel Weight Nancy Weatherley Berne Huliatg Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Nowsroom 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 986-1337 News Viewpoint LGH priorities he new Pro-Lions Gate Hospital group, formed to halt a takeover of the hospital board by anti-abortion Pro Life forces, comes none too soon for those who value LGH‘S many vital services. The PLGH aim is to represent the order of priorities which it believes the majority of North Shore residents would wish their hospitai to follow. Statistically, abortion is a pretty low priority. LGH currently handles 180,000 patient visits of every kind annually, only about 600 of which — one-third of one percent — are abortion cases. The fear is that a board controlled by Pro Life, in its eagerness to concentrate on that single issue, could well neglect other critically important areas of the hospital’s operation that clearly have a much greater impact on most of its users. The Pro Life approach is morally unassailable, but it cannot yet dictate human behavior. If legal abortions were banned tomorrow, dangerous illegal abortions would continue or increase. And so would today’s costly socia! problem of unwanied children suffering equally with reluctant mothers whom they reduce to a welfare subsistence. The only lasting solution is gradual, painstaking social education. It CAN work — as shown by the long campaign that has reduced smokers to a mzze 30% of the population. Pro Life adherents brush aside this practical truth by labelling as “Pro-Aborition’ anyone who questions their uncompromising creed. Usually, that emotion-charged label is quite uisjustified, as in the case of the new PLGH group. If the latter now persuades hospital society members that rigid rejection of reasoned solutions to tough problems is not the best way to run 99.7% of the hospital’s affairs, Pro Life has only itself SUNDAY « WEDNESDAY « FRIDAY 1139 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouve’, 8.C. V7M 2H4 Faire contents 1986 North Snore Free Press Lid All nights reserved 56,245 (average, Wednesday Fuday & Sunday} SUA DIVIGION, trengeens TODAY'S | Gounsell HISTORY LESSON ONE HUNDRED and thirty-eight years ago today Thomas Alva Edison was granted a patent for his invention of the phonograph — the forerunner of present-day stereo systems. Less well known is the man who actually MADE that first machine. It was built from Edison’s drawings by his assistant, John Kreusi, whose labors were rewarded by his master with the princely sum of $18.00. * This day is also the anniversary of the catastrophic 1888 tornado in Mlinois which destroyed Mount Vernon and levelled everything for several miles along a path 500 yards wide. Fires erupting among the ruins added to the huge loss of life and property damage. * Today, too, was the birthday in 1473 of Nicholas Copernicus, fa- ther of modern astronomy, who first reasoned that Earth was a planet circling the sun. COUNSELLING—traditionally the preserve of the parish priest and, since Freud, the $100-an-hour psychiatrist — is to- day’s major growth industry. Marriage on the rocks? Plagued ty problem kids? Depressed by unemployment? Overweight? Drink- ing too much? Can’t quit smoking? You name it. Fast relief is promised nowadays by innumerable counselling services. In fact, your biggest probiem could be simply trying to decide who might best help solve our biggest problem. Among the options is a 14-year- old North Shore operation whose method differs, in one significant respect, from most of the others. It combines the professionalism of modern psychiatry and psychology with the ancient human wisdom and understanding of the church. The process is called ‘pastoral counselling’’. It’s a type of therapy based on sound, proven psychologi- cal principles fortified by a “spiritual dimension’’ described as the force that unifies our physical, mental, emotional, social and cultural aspects. Originally known as Living And Learning, the North Shore Counsell- ing Centre, as it’s now named, was born in the early 1970s at a meeting of concerned citizens in West Van LETTER OF THE DAY Stephen Rogers deserves an apology Dear Editor: Would it be a conflict of interest if a B.C. Cabinet Minister applied for and obtained the home-owner grant for his or her home? Clearly not -~ the Minister would have obtained the grant based on the clearly defined rules governing eligibility, open to all home owners. How then can the media accuse Energy Minister Stephen Rogers of a conflict concerning the Port Alice Pulp Mill and the Jower hydro electricity rate for which it qualifies? The Mill qualifies for such rates under clear rules openly published by Hydro. Any other qualifying business can also apply for the reduced rate. United Church, which seeded the venture with a special one-time grant of $50,000. to blame. and social workers. Other experienc- ed professionals are on call. In a typical year, at its West Van headquarters at 2104 Gordon Avenue, the team provides over 3,700 hours of professional pastoral counselling to clients suffering from Noel Wright Today it’s both independent and non-denominational, but the pastor- al element remains strong. Executive director Rev. John Stewart, has two other ordained clergymen as his full- time colleagues. Their regular lay associates include well-known psychiatrist Dr. Paul Termanson and eight or nine qualified psychologists But unlike the home-owner analogy, Mr. Rogers did not own the Mill nor hold any direct in- vestment in it — like hundreds of British Columbians, he held a miniscule percentage of a non- voting, non-owning interest in a tax shelter. It is sad to realize that so many in the media were so blindly quick, © focus @ every kind of problem from marital breakdown, family stress and bereavement to joblessness, depres- sion and burn-out. . Doctors are the major source of referrals to the Centre, who come from numerous parts of the Lower Mainland as well as the entire North Shore. For the professional therapy in their stampede for headlines, to brand as a conflict of interest the simple and straight-forward ap- plication by the Port Alice Mill for lower hydro rates under guidelines openly established and applicable to all such businesses. It is sadder to realize that these facts were readily known and easi- ly available to the media. ors with a difference they receive, clients are charged nor- mally $50 per session, not covered by medicare. Hence a problem now fac- ing the Centre itself. High unemployment is producing more and more clients who can’t af- ford the fee — and the Centre's policy, like that of old-time doctors, is never to turn away a sufferer for lack of money. To meet that commitment the NSCC has launched an unusual fun- draising drive based on the same kind of depth approach that characterizes its counselling. Head- ed by former West Van alderman Don Lanskail, the ‘Storehouse Fund’’ campaign target is $250,000 — investment income which will sub- sidize those unable to pay fully, or even partially, for badly needed help. So in the next two months Don Lanskail’s canvassers will be knock- ing on business, government and ser- vice club doors, among others, seek- ing donations they never intend to spend. Instead, they'll lend the money out — thereby pumping welcome capital into the economy while using the ongoing return to assist their poorer clients. Sounds like positive thinking in the counting house as well as the con- sulting room! . By failing (or refusing) to report the facts, the media have turned that simple, honest and straightforward application into an alleged conflict of interest. Mr. Rogers deserves an apology; the public deserve the facts. Herb Doman, Chairman Western Pulp Inc. Doman Industrics Ltd.