Baulne
murder/suicides in Kelowna, BC
by
Barbara Anello
|
Baulne
murder/suicides in Kelowna, BC |
January 5, 2002 | |
| Reprinted
with permission from the Women
with Disabilities Electronic Discussion List Was distressed to read how our system has failed yet another family. By now, I'm sure many of you have learned of the tragic murder/suicides in Kelowna, British Columbia. The Baulne family (a 57 year old man, his 54 year old wife, and their 34 year old son who lived with the effects of a severe brain injury from birth & required 24 hour care) died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a murder/suicide. They left a suicide note, in which an RCMP officer indicated that the family's cries for help went unheard. The Baulnes chose to care for their son at home since birth rather than institutionalizing him because they felt that they could best care for their son. In doing so, they saved taxpayers a huge sum of money. And were they supported? NO! While it was okay for the government to pay for an external caregiver to periodically come into the home to give Mrs. Baulne a break, they were not prepared to financially assist the Baulnes to provide at-home care. Last year, Mr. Baulne was forced to leave his heavy machine-operator position because of a back injury. He was placed on an emergency-waiting list for physiotherapy and was advised it would take up to A YEAR before he would be able to access physiotherapy services. Mrs. Baulne suffered with arthritis and was in constant pain. Because of the financial hardships they found themselves in, the Baulnes were forced to sell off the animals from their hobby farm (they operated a petting zoo). It's tragic to learn about the desperation and challenges this family faced and while I don't condone murder or suicide, I certainly empathise with this family. I don't know how others feel, but this makes me so angry and leaves me feeling frustrated ... I find it hard to read about a tragic event like this and then go about my daily business. I think to myself... well surely someone or some group needs to do something about this. If I hear one more person say to me, "what a shame" I think I may just go ballistic. What is happening to our society when human life is so unvalued? How do we go about advocating for progressive change in social/political policies? I want someone to tell me what I can do because I don't know what can be done or how to go about doing it. I just know that what happened to those people in Kelowna is very very wrong. Over the holiday season, I had my 5 year old son at home full-time... (no childcare or school). He doesn't require the kind of care that Reese Baulne did... but he is a handful. He's a bright, energetic child who has a pervasive developmental disorder ("mild" autism spectrum disorder) and at 42 I am hopeless to keep up with him, clean up after him, cope with his behavioural difficulties etc etc. And I guess I feel very small for whining about my situation and small hardships, which pale in comparison to what the Baulnes had to deal with and the lack of supports available to them. My question therefore is around the issue of how we go about affecting positive changes to social/political policies relevant to persons with disabilities ... i.e. advocating for families to receive government funding to care for our children/adults with disabilities at home. Thanks for reading... Barbara Anello To provide feedback,
email dawn@thot.net You can read more about the discussion list at http://dawn.thot.net/list.html
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