Aurel Beauvais - 2004 Courage to Come Back Award Recipient

Sudbury, Ontario

May 2004

Aurel Beauvais has schizophrenia.  In his youth, Aurel was a model student.  He was academically strong and a leader of his team in hockey and baseball. He had many friends and as the eldest of seven children, he had good family support.  He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1980 at the age of 19, while he was attending college to obtain a civil engineering diploma.  Excessive stimulation, anxiety and paranoia prevented him from completing this program and he dropped out of school. 

Aurel attempted various courses over the next several years including surveying, drafting, electronics, accounting and computer applications. He quit some of the programs due to the stress of being around others coupled with persistent and unrelenting paranoid ideas and delusions of grandeur. In spite of the symptoms, he did manage to receive certifications in two of these programs. Academically, Aurel could handle the work; socially, he was lost to others and sadly, lost to himself.  Symptoms of schizophrenia prevented him from being what he wanted to be in his life.

Aurel felt he had lost everything including relationships, school, work and his health.  He stated that he no longer had any sense of who he was and what he was meant to be.  Despite all of this he found the strength to persevere.  He participated actively in developing his own wellness plan. He gave up drugs and alcohol, regained his sense of self and found a purpose in life, being persistent in finding suitable employment and learning that this was to help other people in similar circumstances.  Aurel credits many events and persons with helping him to have the courage to come back; his mother Lorraine, whom he describes as unconditionally loving and supportive of him and his son Taylor, who has kept him focused on the important things in life. He is also grateful for his psychotherapist, and members of his psychotherapy group as well as friends who have stood by him through good times and bad.

He is incredibly proud of his accomplishments, especially as a Peer Support Worker on the Assertive Community Treatment Team in Sudbury.  He has assumed a strong leadership position as President of the Northern Initiative for Social Action; a consumer run program in Sudbury.  Strong leadership, an educated understanding of systemic issues, and an intimate understanding of schizophrenia and mental illness have all helped Aurel play a significant role in recent deliberations with a task force on consumer initiatives in the region he lives in.

Aurel has always had two specific goals.  First he wanted to write a book about his experiences in an effort to help others, which he is currently completing.  Second, he wanted to work with other mental health consumers.  He has been described as approachable, respectful, knowledgeable, compassionate and hard working.  These qualities have helped Aurel achieve his goal of helping others.

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