Mental health services - We must find resources to end misery

OVER the last number of years there has been a new determination and urgency to try to improve the circumstances of those who depend on long-term state care because of mental health difficulties.

This was epitomised, in 2006, by the publication of A Vision for Change which promised radical change and improvement in the way we support people with mental illnesses. There was, and remains, a general recognition that far too many of the institutions used by people with mental health illnesses, and in some instances intellectual difficulties, are unfit for human habitation much less recuperation.

Some were so poor that the residents and staff endured circumstances that would not have been accepted in any other full-time residential setting.