We are in the process of collecting signatures (names) for
the following Letter to the Editor.  It is in response to
today's story in the Sunday Toronto Star (Dec. 8) re:
Dr. Richard Schabas, the Chief Medical Officer  of Health in
Toronto.

If you wish to add your name to this letter, please e-mail
this intention to:

[log in to unmask]

Also, please forward this to any bulletin boards, friends,
and associates, etc.

We plan to submit this to the Star Thursday morning.

************************************************************

12 December 1996


Letters to the Editor
Toronto Star
1 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario

Dear Editor:

        As community health workers, students, and
volunteers, we concur with Dr. Richard Schabus, Ontario's
Chief Medical Officer of Health that "What is important is
the way in which people live their lives, and the conditions
in which they live" (The needle man, Dec. 8).  We are also
pleased to hear that Dr. Schabus believes "I'm really at the
centre of all the difficult decisions that get to be made in
public health."

        Since Dr. Schabus is well aware that inequality in
societal resources is the principal determinant of health,
with poor children and adults experiencing strikingly high
incidences of ill health and behaviour problems, when can we
expect his office to comment on the following?

        1) How the provincial government's economic
policies, by cutting the income of society's neediest and
tranferring it to the wealthiest are creating conditions
that promote illness among the population?

        2) How the provincial government's institution of a
co-payment plan for prescription medication will lead to
many seniors not taking the medications they need to
maintain their health?

        3) How Metropolitan Toronto's shameful denial of
Wheels Trans service to obviously disabled seniors and
others will lead to social isolation and subsequent
ill-health among vulnerable seniors and others?

        4) How the unwillingness of all levels of government
to deal with the growing issue of child poverty is dooming a
large segment of the present generation to lives of
ill-health?

        While the elimination of measles is certainly worth
achieving, the importance of this effort pales in comparison
to the other pressing health issues related to poverty,
denial of services, and destruction of the social safety net
that helps to keep so many of us in good health. We urge Dr.
Schabus to speak out on these important social policy
issues.

Dennis Raphael
Toba Bryant


"Truly we live in dark times." - Bertolt Brecht

Dennis Raphael, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Division of Community Health
Faculty of Medicine
Department of Behavioural Science
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8
Tel: (416) 978-7567
Fax: (416) 978-2087
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]