INSITE PROTECTS PEOPLE STRUGGLING WITH THEIR DEMONS

I practise law in Vancouver. In the course of representing victims of
sexual assaults and abuse in claims for compensation, I have dealt
with clients with drug abuse issues, including heroin addiction. Many
of those who develop drug addictions have a history of physical
and/or sexual abuse as children.

I successfully represented one such man who was struggling with the
demons of his past, the voices of which became very much louder as we
took each step in the litigation. He made many efforts to free
himself from an addiction he acquired as a teenager after being
sexually abused by a worker in a government institution. He tried all
manner of things to dull his psychological pain, including cutting
off part of one of his ears -- sometimes inflicting physical pain on
one's self has the effect of providing a distraction from the more
excruciating, invisible pain.

Ultimately he died of a heroin overdose in the bathroom of a
restaurant in the Downtown Eastside. He was in his 30s. Insite did
not yet exist.

I think we can and should provide better protection for people like
him. Insite is a necessary part of that better protection.

Megan R. Ellis

Vancouver