Please join us at Renaissance Event Venue, 285 Queen Street, Kingston ON
The Rotary Four Way Test
Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned
Rotary Reflection
For food in a world where many walk in hunger
For peace in a world where many walk in fear
For friends in a world where many walk alone
And for the opportunity to serve others through Rotary,
May we be truly thankful!
The Loyal Toast
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Queen of Canada!
Acknowledgement of Territory
We are gathered on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. we are grateful to be able to join together in Rotary Fellowship on these lands.
Ana Sutherland introduced our visitors, Dorothy Cotton, today’s speaker, Bob Dowling, honorary member of the club, and Marcel Gummert, returning exchange student.
Makeups
Make-ups were reported by Bill Egnatoff, Youth Service; Greta DuBois, Kingston Rotary Centennial; Michelle Chatten-Fiedorec and John Farrow, Friendship Exchange; Elizabeth Cohoe, Bingo.
FunMaster John Farrow
John Farrow led this segment of the meeting with fines for anyone who was not sitting with an honorary member, anyone who has a pool, a river or a lake to cool off in, and anyone not planning to attend Amanda’s farewell party.
Happy and Sad Bucks
There were a lot of happy bucks contributed. Bernie Allard reported that Sheila has finally, after many weeks, been transferred from KGH to Providence Care. Francine’s new club finally has a number so they had their first official meeting. Sigi Scholten was happy to report that not only has Marcel returned from Italy, but also there have been no fights yet. Susan Zambonin is pleased to report that Habitat for Humanity will be having the wall raising this Saturday from 8:30 – 4:30, for the second duplex on Cowdy Street. Ron Pols appreciated that John Farrow has been willing to be fun master for 5 out of the last 10 weeks. Martin Thomas reported a huge expense for his swimming pool. Bill Egnatoff, our interim electronic communications officer, is working in small steps to get others involved. In the next few weeks, the domain name for our club will point to the new Club Runner site. Bill then talked about learning at the R.I. convention that there was a lot of talk about making Rotary different. When he spoke to our former member Lise Coughlan about the possibility of a corporate membership, she said “Count me in!” Lise has not had the time at her disposal to continue being a regular member. Bill (who by the way contributed more than the standard dollar) said he will be attending a flute master class in Italy. In August, there will be a woodwind trio concert, and he will have tickets for that. Michelle Chatten-Fiedorec thanked Greg Mumford and Robert Reid for their recent contributions to Amanda’s wish list. Robert Reid added that while taking Amanda tubing in the St. Lawrence River, the tube which had not been used in a while disintegrated! John Farrow is happy to be attending several summer concerts with his son. He and Lori are also planning to go on a tour to Québec City. While attending the pre-tour meeting, there was Anita Mercier, who is going as well. Apparently they will be staying in an old monastery, and were told that breakfast will be silent. No one thinks that will be possible for John. Rick Fiedorec had a sad buck for the exchange students who have already left, and for Amanda who will be returning home soon.
President's Announcements
At the last meeting of the board, Pat Brown, Arnold Lawrence, Bill Gray and Joan Egnatoff were all approved as honorary members. All have accepted.
Bill Gray will give a mini classification talk on August 14th.
Glenda Guindon is very busy with her personal life, but really misses Rotary.
We are still in need of a Treasurer, and someone to lead Communications and PR.
Several meetings were announced, that will take place before publication of the Courier. Membership, and Youth Service will be meeting this week, and also, the Tour de Lac will be in Kingston on Friday.
On July 31st there will be a very interesting speaker who will talk about the control of invasive water plants.
Remember that the Nut Drive will be taking place on September 4th this year, which is a Tuesday. There will be some fixed locations this year in addition to the traditional routes.
The weekly draw was won by Elizabeth Cohoe.
Guest Speaker Dorothy Cotton
Murray Cotton had the pleasure of introducing our speaker Dorothy Cotton.
Dr. Dorothy Cotton is a forensic psychologist with a particular interest in the area of police psychology and who holds diplomate status in police psychology—the only one in Canada. She is an Associate Member of both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and has been involved in the latter organization’s policy and program development related to police/mental health systems liaison. She consults regularly, both formally and informally, with police services across the country about issues related to development of mental health liaisons programs and committees. Dr. Cotton also provides pre-employment and fitness for duty assessments to a variety of police services.
Dr. Cotton is also an adjunct faculty member at Queen’s University, is Past President of the College of Psychologists of Ontario (the regulatory body for psychology), has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) and is also a Fellow of CPA. She served on the Mental Health and the Law Committee of the Mental Health Association of Canada. In 2012, she received a Diamond Jubilee Medal recognizing her work in relation to interactions between police and people with mental illnesses and in 2018 she was invested into the Order of Ontario for her work in this area.
Interactions Between Law Enforcement and the Mentally Ill
Dorothy began by stating that since she has been working with the police for the last 15 years, her opinion about the interaction between police officers and those who suffer from mental illnesses has changed. Public opinion has been warped by the media because of the over reporting of negative situations.
She used a quiz approach to show us how our own perceptions affect what happens. For example, if we were to see a man on the street clutching his chest, or a child hurt on a playground, we would naturally provide assistance and call for professional help if necessary. This does not happen if we see a person acting erratically. Generally, it results in a call to the police.
This is the reason why the police get involved in the first place. Although one in five have such problems, people with mental illnesses are over represented in police calls, and may be encountered multiple times. For many, their first contact with the mental health system is through the police. In fact, in Canada, there are several million such calls every year. They play a huge support role, yet the public will only hear about the occasional death that may occur. Dorothy is very aware that the police are actually doing an incredible job at things that don’t make the headlines. The police come in contact with these vulnerable people who are most often victims and not perpetrators. They are not more likely than the general population to commit a crime. They are generally not a danger to society.
Most calls that are received by police are citizens just looking for help. The example given was a parent who doesn’t know how to deal with a child, and the police play a big role in getting people connected to the proper services. They are often “the only game in town”. This began when there was a decision to deinstitutionalize people suffering from mental illnesses, and Canadian society became very conscious of human rights. There is now a lack of available resources. There is also an awareness of the stigma associated with mental health issues, and fear of seeking help for this reason. The whole area is underfunded now, and has become a societal failing.
There has been more attention paid in the last five years, especially by the military, but it is mainly talk and there is a lack of proper funding.
What are police services doing? They used to say it wasn’t their job. Now they are getting many hours of training. In some communities there are joint response initiatives with other services, but Kingston is not large enough to be able to do that. Kingston does have some specialized officers, and support for front line officers. They have developed strategies for dealing with these situations, and they are hiring new officers with the right traits and previous experience. The police actually do a lot of social service activities over simple law enforcement. They have become part of our community circles of care.
The greater problem is society at large and the attitudes out there. We really need to examine our own attitudes.
Some questions followed which gave Dorothy an opportunity to provide further examples. The cost to society is greater than the cost of policing if these people do not get properly treated. People who leave work with mental health issues are generally absent longer than those with physical health issues, and many don’t return at all. Most people won’t talk about it if they do. Only a small number of people with mental health issues actually need police assistance, but that is where the calls go. Like many other issues, we are generally afraid of what we don’t understand.
Robert Reid provided our traditional speaker thanks.
