Mental health Roundtable adamant on changing the current system

Mental health workers and practitioners working with South Asian community are urging CASSA to look into the impact of current mental health system on various South Asian communities in Greater Toronto Area.

Use your authority to bring about changes in way services is provided in diverse South Asian communities – Cassa told.

The pressing recommendations to the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) came about at the recent South Asians & Mental Health Roundtable, organized by the council. Suggestions from mental health workers at the roundtable conference echo that of a recent study on the South Asian Community in Metropolitan Toronto.

The study, The Need for Community Services recommended that community services and funding from the government tailor services according to each community’s needs.

The current system funds mainstream mental health agencies, such as Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to provide services to ethnospecific communities. However, participants in the roundtable conference strongly believe that ethnospecific agencies are better equipped to ease difficulties navigating the mental health system. And can put local health dollars where they are most needed. Making it more cost efficient, eliminating barriers such as language, transportation and stigmatization. They claim their structured service models are less stigmatizing and less psychologically scarring.

CASSA, a social justice umbrella organization working with Ontario’s diverse South Asian communities, wanted to hear directly from agencies, mental health frontline workers and practitioners on challenges, barriers and opportunities for people with mental health challenges in the community.

Neethan Shan, Executive Director of Cassa commented on the purpose of the roundtable conference.
“Cassa wants to identify 2-3 things that it can focus on in the year or two with respect to mental health issues in South Asian community,” Shan said. “Now that we have heard from people what they want CASSA to focus on, next time we meet with the LHIN, we will give them this information.”

Albinism Murder Trial begins in Tanzania

BY KHALID MAGRAM
Highly anticipated trial of twelve people accused of murdering persons with albinism and using their body parts for witchcraft purpose is set to begin in western Tanzanian.
The recent killings of people who have skin defect has reached forty in the past eighteen months.

Witchdoctors from many parts of western Tanzania are selling Albino body parts for huge sums of money, claiming to make their client wealthy and have good fortune in business.

Many believe prominent Tanzanian businessmen are amongst the clients of the witchdoctors. Some businessmen were arrested accused of killing Albinos however, no one has faced trial as yet.

Human rights groups in Tanzania had earlier expressed their disappointment and concerns regarding the delay in bring the accused to trial in towns of Shinyanga and Kahama in western Tanzania.

“The justice system is slow and full of corruption,” said Will Ross, BBC’s East African correspondent.

Albinism results from inheritance of recessive alleles. The condition is known to affect mammals (including humans), fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. While the most common term for an organism affected by albinism is “albino” (noun and adjective), the word is sometimes used in derogatory ways towards people. A person with congenital albinism has white hair and milky skin; eyes are usually pink.

Adults and children with albinism have been attacked frequently inside their homes. Brutally murdered and their limbs severed. Any body part of person with albinism can fetch thousands of dollars.

Miners, businessmen and fishermen with black magic beliefs have been accused to increase demand for body parts in western Tanzania, location famous for its diamond mines in the world.BY KHALID MAGRAM

Global warming is irreversible but…

By KHALID MAGRAM
Events such as Earth Hour will not reverse global warming. It can however buy our planet some precious time, a world-renowned scientist and environment crusader, David Suzuki says.
“When individuals do something beneficial for the environment – turning off the lights for an hour to show support for a good idea, or using energy-efficient appliances,” David Suzuki said. “They are expressing a bold statement about their values.”
Suzuki’s comment comes on the eve of Earth Hour, in what has become a global annual environmental friendly event. Earth Hour idea is simple. Everyone is to flick off lights and non-essential appliances for an hour.
Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008, the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights.
For more than a decade now David Suzuki, a staunch environment campaigner, has been saying that the environmental issue is a political issue of our time.
Speaking with CBC’s Ian Hanomansingh, Suzuki gave tips on conserving energy and urged on the need of political leadership for implementing sound environmental policies.
Suzuki also said Canadians are far ahead of politicians when it comes to fighting climate change. The bad news is that our so called leaders in business and government aren’t interested, they just want to keep doing things the same old way, Suzuki added.
This time around, the global call for action is mainly directed to negotiators who need to reach agreement on a new global deal on climate change at a UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December. The last global accord, the Kyoto Protocol, is set to expire in 2012.
This year, Canadians in about 150 communities, including Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, have pledged to turn off their lights for 60 minutes at 8 p.m. local time on March 28. National sites will also go dark, including Toronto’s CN Tower.
Grammy-winning singer Nelly Furtado will entertain Earth Hour partygoers at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, starting at 6:45 p.m. Power for the event will be supplied by Bullfrog Power, a company that uses emission-free sources like wind and water.