A FATHER STRUGGLES TO SAVE HIS SON

Mentally Ill Addict Who Doesn't Fit Mould Of A Regional Care Program
Fears For His Life On The Streets

When Khosrow Taghan prepares dinner, he wonders what his 23-year-old
son, drug addicted and mentally ill, is eating. And when he lays his
head on his pillow at night, he imagines what street his son is
sleeping on -- and if he'll be alive by the morning.

Taghan usually finds Sahba downtown -- near the Johnson Street bridge,
other times near the corner of Douglas and Yates streets.

Heartbroken, Taghan locates a shelter or hospital that will take Sahba
for a night or two. And then it starts again.

"He gets really bad and walks day and night," Taghan, 48, said. "He
doesn't know what's going on, he just keeps walking. He doesn't eat,
he doesn't sleep."

Three weeks ago, Taghan found his son savagely beaten, bloody and
bruised. That's when Sahba told Taghan that he could no longer survive
on the streets.

The two visited several addiction and health facilities, but came up
empty. So, they attended a court hearing on a charge that Sahba
allegedly pulled a knife on Taghan. Sahba pleaded guilty and will
remain behind bars at Wilkinson jail for another week -- the pair
figure it's the best place him to stay safe and sober, and to buy time.

Born in Iran, Sahba was a happy enough child moving from his
birthplace to Turkey, Spain, Calgary and finally Ladysmith. His
parents split up about five years ago and Taghan now lives in
Victoria, while his ex-wife is in Ladysmith.

Trouble began when Sahba started to hear and smell things no one else
could. He was taken to a psychiatrist, and within what seemed like
minutes, Sahba, at age 15, was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Sahba was put on a course of drugs for a few months -- chemicals that
seemed to flatten him, his father said.

By age 16, he entered a maze of health and social services, group
homes, shelters and institutions. He was in and out of Eric Martin
Pavilion, and stayed at group homes such as Adanac House. After a
two-year stint addicted to crystal meth, Sahba moved on to cocaine.

Last year he was in Seven Oaks mental health facility.
Institutionalized, on prescribed medicine and off illicit drugs, he
was relatively healthy. But since Sahba still acted aggressively,
behaviour the facility deemed inappropriate, he had to leave.
Bewildered, Taghan says that Sahba's aggressive behaviour is also
"part of his sickness."

So far, Sahba hasn't fit the mould of any one program or service in
the Capital Region. His father admits that Sahba injects street drugs
- -- "whatever he can get his hands on" -- which is a problem when most
facilities require patients to be drug free. And without continuous
supervision, he will not stay at his family home.

Patient confidentiality forbids Kenneth Moselle, acting director of
mental health and addiction services for the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, from speaking specifically about Sahba's case. But he said
schizophrenic patients are "one of the top priorities" in the mental
health care system.

According to Moselle, there are about 7,000 people with schizophrenia
on Vancouver Island. Schizophrenics have a high fatality rate -- they
sometimes commit suicide, provoke assaults, or choose life on the
streets where their both their mental and physical health
deteriorates, he said.

That's why, he said, the health-care system makes great allowances for
the hard to house, such as schizophrenics. "It's not even that a
client has to meet us half way, but they have to meet us part way,"
Moselle said.

And while Sahba has been in and out of several facilities, it would be
wrong to say that Sahba's case is hopeless or that VIHA has abandoned
him or his family, Moselle said.

But Taghan believes the only psychiatrist that "has really tried to
help find a solution to Sahba's problem" was Dr. Anthony Barale, who
resigned as clinical director of the Archie Courtnall Centre in late
August. Dr. Barale complained that VIHA wasn't providing enough
resources to allow the centre to act as anything more than a
"revolving door" to the overwhelming number of drug-addicted patients
with mental illness.

According to Taghan, Barale fought for better care for Sahba, and
believed he may have a head trauma and is highly sensitive to drugs.

For years Taghan has chased his son's shadow, to hospitals, jails,
back home and out on the streets. He liaises with doctors, nurses,
drug dealers, and police officers. He's constantly buying him shoes
and clothes, but Sahba sells them to buy drugs -- or uses the cash
from his disability cheque.

"Right now I'm so helpless, and so hopeless, I don't know what to do,"
Taghan said.

No longer able to function under such stress, Taghan said last month
he took a leave from his 10-year job as a B.C. Transit bus driver.

"Since I left my country, since 18, I've always been active, working
two jobs. But right now I don't want to live," he said. "I don't
function and I don't eat. I'm like a zombie. I'm at the end of the
road."