THE WRONG PRIORITIES
Major congratulations to the Vancouver Police Department for their report on how we are failing the mentally ill, and to the Sun for covering this story thoroughly today.
The document is called "Lost in Transition: How a Lack of Capacity in the Mental health System is Failing Vancouver's mentally Ill and Draining Police Resources."
This is a shocking and much-needed document. It is a wake-up call that will fall, unfortunately, on deaf ears.
The Page 11 piece by Lori Culbert says it all: "Police becoming de facto mental health workers of our society. Closing of mental health institutions, funding cutbacks for social housing, inadequate
welfare rates and abundance of drugs causing crisis in Dowtown east side."
But police and others have been telling us this for a decade now. Who in Victoria or Ottawa or at the Bug House at 12th and Cambie is listening?
And nothing better illustrates this monstrosity than the nightmare of the O'Brien family as told by Cuthbert and Pete McMartin.
There are key moments in this horrifying tale of a beautiful young man descending into schizophrenia and ending in suicide.
Corey O'Brien was admitted into a psychitric unit in December 2003 and released one month later because some of his symptons had decreased. This is outrageous. These incompetents are murderers.
In February 2005, the boy's mother was alarmed at his state, "but mental health professionals thoguht he was fine. " PROFESSIONALS???
This sovereign state - British Columbia - has other priorities. Olympics, convention centres, domed stadiums, RAV lines.
This premier - Gordon Campbell - has never shown an ounce of interest in the elderly, children or mentally ill and addicted.
He even has highly refined and duplicitous tastes when it comes to free enterprise. No doubt somehwhere in his socks or his desk drawer there is a secret number that reveals at what point he thinks a business venture is of any interest to him and to the province. Clearly the mom and pop folks who have been rendered bankrupt by the cut-and-cover of the Cambie Line don't qualify.
Read the Sun stories today about the mentally ill and our public policy of wilful disregard and tell me what kind of man is in charge?
I'd like to see the official list of THE DISPOSABLES: Mentally ill, small business owners near subway lines, addicts, old couples, children at risk...
The document is called "Lost in Transition: How a Lack of Capacity in the Mental health System is Failing Vancouver's mentally Ill and Draining Police Resources."
This is a shocking and much-needed document. It is a wake-up call that will fall, unfortunately, on deaf ears.
The Page 11 piece by Lori Culbert says it all: "Police becoming de facto mental health workers of our society. Closing of mental health institutions, funding cutbacks for social housing, inadequate
welfare rates and abundance of drugs causing crisis in Dowtown east side."
But police and others have been telling us this for a decade now. Who in Victoria or Ottawa or at the Bug House at 12th and Cambie is listening?
And nothing better illustrates this monstrosity than the nightmare of the O'Brien family as told by Cuthbert and Pete McMartin.
There are key moments in this horrifying tale of a beautiful young man descending into schizophrenia and ending in suicide.
Corey O'Brien was admitted into a psychitric unit in December 2003 and released one month later because some of his symptons had decreased. This is outrageous. These incompetents are murderers.
In February 2005, the boy's mother was alarmed at his state, "but mental health professionals thoguht he was fine. " PROFESSIONALS???
This sovereign state - British Columbia - has other priorities. Olympics, convention centres, domed stadiums, RAV lines.
This premier - Gordon Campbell - has never shown an ounce of interest in the elderly, children or mentally ill and addicted.
He even has highly refined and duplicitous tastes when it comes to free enterprise. No doubt somehwhere in his socks or his desk drawer there is a secret number that reveals at what point he thinks a business venture is of any interest to him and to the province. Clearly the mom and pop folks who have been rendered bankrupt by the cut-and-cover of the Cambie Line don't qualify.
Read the Sun stories today about the mentally ill and our public policy of wilful disregard and tell me what kind of man is in charge?
I'd like to see the official list of THE DISPOSABLES: Mentally ill, small business owners near subway lines, addicts, old couples, children at risk...
