Nothing has changed for mental health sufferers

THANK you for highlighting the plight of people with mental health problems through Jennifer Hough’s excellent piece (June 7). However, I find myself once again saying “the more things change the more they remain the same”.

In your editorial you rightly point to the fact that facilities are unfit for human habitation, much less recuperation, while acknowledging the determination of minister John Moloney. Ministers come and go, and so too personnel working in the field. Many leave for promotion and others as a result of sheer frustration while those needing improved facilities remain statistics in an ever increasing pile of reports.

Reports do not include figures for people who over the years were discharged to hostel accommodation because they were cheaper to run, or to struggling communities without adequate support. Many people end up on the streets because they have serious psychological and psychiatric problems without ever having received the support required to live in the community.