The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MAY 9, I973 TERRACE BAY NEWS PAGE 5 THE QUIET REVOLUTION Normalization. The word may not mean much to you. You may not even find it in your dictionary But for more than two million Canadians, or one-tenth our population, the word is becoming increasingly important. The Canadians in questions are the approx- imately 640,000 mentally retarded citizens and their parents and families. For them, normalization brings almost revolutionary hope and new expectations. Normalization, simply put, means letting the mentally retarded person obtain an exist- ence as close to the normal as possible. It means for example, that the mentally retarded psrson be given the chance to do things we've long denied him, because our ex- pectations of him were so low. It means we must free him to live in more normal settings. Sleeping in wards of 50 or more, taking every meal in huge cafeterias, or bathing in mass showers will never produce normal behaviour. So we must change that. It means we must free him to move and communicate in ways typical for his age; to use typical community resources be they recre- ational, religious, medical, social or what- ever. Being isolated in remote institutions or hospitals where one is labelled as a pati- ent or inmate, and where one cannot mix with other community residents or enjoy community amenities, is hardly conducive to normal be- haviour. So we must change that. cont'd next column...... COMMUNITY CO-OPERATION IS NEEDED In Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital BOARDING HOME PROGRAMMES The hospital is seeking homes for patients ready to return to community living. Concern for people and a warm family atmosphere are the prerequisites. Allowance is paid to each hostess on a monthly basis. The hospital provides counselling and foll- owup services to air each patient in his ad- justment to community living. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Mr. G. Siddall of the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital will be in Terrace Bay on May 10-12. He can be contacted by leaving your name and address at the Public Health Nurses Office. and normalcy of the mentally retarded person, and have further retarded his development. We have stressed the negative, not the posi- tive. not his likeness to the rest of us. The men- tally retarded person, for his part, being neither vocal nor articulate, has accepted his fate quietly. The Canadian Association for the Mentally Retarded and its nine pro- vincial and 350 local associations are trying to change that. And we all must help. Normalization therefore means many things for the mentally retarded. But it also means something for those of us who make up the so- called "normal" segment of society. It's time we revolutionized our thinking. It's time we raised our expectations ofthe mentally retarded. 01d attitudes and fears die hard. But let's give normalization - and the mentally retarded - a chance. For too long, we have reduced the potential * We have pointed out his "differentness" ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT Mr. and Mrs. G. Nesbitt of Schreiber are pleased to announced the engagement of their daughter Linda Arlene to Mr. Donald Lance Stewart son of Mr. and Mrs. D. Stewart of Terrace Bay. The wedding will take place at II o'clock on May I8th in St. Andrew's United Church, Schreiber. NOTICE There will be a bus leaving Schreiber for the Hospital Auxiliary bingo May 24th at 7:30 p.m. Anyone needing more tickets contact: Mrs. E. LeBlanc, Schreiber. NOT] CE COMING SOON The Fort William Male Choir sponsored by the Schreiber Parks and Recreation Committee Friday, May 25th - Schreiber Campus - 8:30 p.m Adults-$2.00; Students-$I.50 Senior Citizens-$I.00 FOR ADVANCE TICKETS CALL: Flora Bryson Shirley Brown Lorraine Huard - 824-2066 - 824-2541 - B248=2757