About Barry
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incredible talent, amazing intellect or his handsome good looks. He was a gifted musician and natural athlete, a loving son and brother who made friends quickly. He positively impacted so many lives from the time he was a youngster and the new kid in town or the newest patient admitted to the hospital. Everyone loved Barry. Barry passed away on March 20, 2005 at the age of just 25. In his last 5 years he was challenged by schizophrenia and fought to the end to overcome the disease, to find relief
potential turned sharply into a journey to find answers in hopes of simply living with clear thinking, being able to live independently and create a meaningful life. Barry's positive energy radiated from him, like a candle's soft glow. And it is with that vision that our Shed A Light Program began. There is no cure for schizophrenia but research continues to shed light on the disease and science is continually finding new medications to ease the symptoms. Much has been done, much more needs to be done. Many people afflicted with schizophrenia have no support and receive no treatment while at the same time, their personal reality changes dramatically. Consider what E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. wrote in Surviving Schizophrenia: "Schizophrenia is a cruel disease. The lives of those affected are often chronicles of constricted experiences, muted motions, missed opportunities, unfulfilled expectations. It leads to a twilight existence, a twentieth-century underground man. The fate of these patients has been worsened by our propensity to misunderstand, our failure to provide adequate treatment and rehabilitation, our meager research efforts. A disease which should be found, in the phrase of T. S. Elliott, in the "frigid purgatorial fires" has become through our ignorance and neglect a living hell." To find out how you can help "Shed a Light" on Mental Illness, CLICK HERE |
