We must speak for those without a voice

I REFER to the front page article entitled “Shame of mentally ill people forgotten by State” (Irish Examiner, March 29).

It is true that the Government doesn’t appear to care about the plight of long-stay patients. It continues to neglect them 23 years after the publishing of the policy document “Planning for the Future.” Why is this?

Could the answer lie in a phrase in your editorial of the same day that “politicians see no votes in mental health”? If so, then it is an indictment of us as a nation.