Same old story for mental hospitals

IN 2000, I spent many weeks traipsing around the country visiting psychiatric hospitals for an article on the mental health services.

It was summer. The country was in full bloom and full boom. All those 00 cars. All those new shopping centres. Tower cranes everywhere, monuments to our new prosperity.

And then you’d come to the edge of the town. And there you’d find another vast monument, this time Gothic and imposing. Once you crossed the threshold you quickly left boomtown behind.