Saturday 11 May 2013

Council Statements And What They Really Mean…

Barnet Borough Council and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust issued a joint statement about the case. The statement reads: “We cannot comment on individual cases. People with mental health issues are protected and have rights to live in the community the same as everyone else. “
“We are quite happy to allow someone diagnosed with schizophrenia to live in a flat which stinks of human waste and is overrun with flies. It’s their human right to live in squalor. Did you really think ‘protection’ meant about protecting them from themselves? Oh, how quaint!”
“We aim, as appropriate, for social workers and mental health workers to work closely with individuals enabling them to lead independent lives with the correct support from professionals and the relevant community teams.”
“And if those ‘independent lives’ impact on the community because the person slept during the day and spent the night screaming at her voices, well, that’s just the price the community must pay to help us feel good about ourselves.

And yes, the ‘correct support’ is indeed an occasional quick visit from a social worker to say 'Hi, how are you doing?' and get out as quickly as possible, stepping over the rubbish bags she left outside her door. Why do you ask?”

9 comments:

Fahrenheit211 said...

Another example of how 'care in the community' has been such a resounding success. I sometimes wonder whether the outcomes for people with mental illness would be better if we had not, as a nation, told the advocates of CIC to bugger off and kept the old asylums open.

Anonymous said...

Bunny

You mean the asylums which employed people, provided a benefit to the afflicted and helped to cure. I tend to agree, agree but I think the balance sheet shows that care in the community is cheaper and allows for windfalls for healthcare authorities as they sell off the buildings and the land.

Fahrenheit211 said...

Very true there Bunny. Going back to the system of asylums would also have the bonus of deterring those who wish to feign mental illness in order to claim benefits.

MH provision should not be punitive, although it should contain the dangerous, but CIC is underadminstered and is therefore an attractive route to the unscrupulous who wish to claim disability benefits.

Anonymous said...

"Disability" (covering everything from genuine, tear inducing, disabilities to the convenient psychobabble stuff covering the thick and indolent) is one of Dear Harriet's Seven Strands of Diversity and makes the offender all but unpunishable.

John Pickworth said...

the correct support from professionals

Surely the whole idea is to support the legions of 'professionals', charities, social workers and mental health workers, not the actual suffers who are parachuted into our communities?

Anonymous said...

Let us not forget the 'racial issue' and how the police are once again to blame....well, only where a special group are involved. From The Evening Stannard
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/met-police-attacked-for-failing-mentally-ill-8610852.html

Lord Adebowale said today: “This report is tough reading for the Met. It is tough because people have died.
“I started this piece of work thinking that mental health is not a police problem but I have come to realise that it should be at the core of policing. One in four Britons suffer from mental health challenges at some point.
He added: “Race is an issue but I am not calling the police racists. However, we found evidence of racist attitudes in one case and we found a disproportionate number of Afro-Carribean young men were being subjected to forcible restraint.”

Hmmm, where to start?

I'll just say that when people with such problems or people who are being affected by such people need help THE POLICE are often the ONLY organisation available on a 24 / 7 basis (and the only ones who can deal with that completely out of control, 6', built like a brick shithouse, naked and armed with a machete young black man who's not taken his meds).

The nearest place of safety will ensure that the 'patient' and 2, 3 4, or more police officers will be kept waiting for hours before the duty shrink states the man isn't mad but has a personality disorder so be off with you!

Mental Health Social Workers are often stretched, especially on nights, and are never available and then expect the police to do everything just because they phone up.

Quite often people with mental health issues only trust the police as they recognise that police officers will at least try and get them the help need and are only let down once the mental health professionals get a grip on them.

Then the race hustlers have over 40 years attempted to ensure that young mad black men DON'T get the help the need by accusing the police of misusung Sec 136 MHA as a means of detaining them....then Lord Adwolebole publishes this load of tosh - you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Mental Health isn't an issue for the police alone, it is a medical problem and there are plenty of Doctors, social workers and other professionals working in the field of mental health and they need to stop wasting their resources, use what they have in a more directed way, lobby for more resources and stop getting the police to do their frigging jobs for them.

Anonymous said...

The problem with not looking after mentally ill people is that they seem to eventually be elected to the council
Penseivat

JuliaM said...

"Another example of how 'care in the community' has been such a resounding success."

There's always more of them, if you look...

"..but I think the balance sheet shows that care in the community is cheaper..."

And employs more people. So, it's a 'good thing' regardless of outcome, as John Pickworth points out.

"...then Lord Adwolebole publishes this load of tosh - you're damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Yup :/

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Barnet Borough Council and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust issued a joint statement XX

I suggest they stop smoking joints before issuing statements.