They closed the "mental hospital"

and told us everyone would be better off. They told us that this was more caring and dignified and that the patients would be better cared for in a "supportive environment out in the community". They told us there would be "small group houses with twenty-four hour care" and they even dared to suggest that care would be professional. They promised us the money was there to do this. They even told us that running the big institutions was far more expensive than this kinder in the community care.

I have noted some changes in our local community recently. It is possible I am wrong but I suspect that some of our regular "care in the community" clients have been moved on and we have several others in their place. 

Why do I suspect this? Because I have not seen some of the regulars and I have seen several people who are obviously housed in these places. 

How do I know this? Because "care in the community" seems to mean sending the residents out after they have had their morning medication and barring them from returning until it is meal time again. Some of these people sit in the park or walk around. They behave in odd ways. Other people avoid them. A few of them frequent the library and the staff find ways of handling them which I admire. It's not the role of the librarians to deal with the mentally ill on a day to day basis.

That these people are not being properly cared for is obvious. It was over 30'C the other day and there was one of the newcomers wandering up the street Middle Cat lives on. This girl was so thin as to be anorexic. She was wearing a very short skirt, a skimpy top, flip-flops and a heavy black anorak. All of her clothing was filthy and she was far from clean. As I watched her cross the street (rather anxiously because she did not look for traffic and a car was coming) she saw another resident of a group house and backed away from him.  They obviously knew one another. 

He has always seemed harmless to me. He is also unkempt to a degree which suggests serious neglect on the part of anyone who is in charge of him. He wanders the shopping centre and consumes large quantities of cheap fizzy drinks. The staff in the supermarket know him and try to handle his inability to give them the correct money or receive the change. Security has sent him out more than once - not because he is doing any harm but simply because they feel he should not be there. I have never seen him wearing anything but flip-flops on his feet even in winter.

These people are not being cared for at all. They are simply being housed in the cheapest possible way. They are not being provided with any meaningful activities or any sort of therapy. All that is being done is to heavily medicate them so they can barely function. Then they are sent out for the day - all day, every day. 

There was trouble yesterday when one of the men stood on the tracks at a local railway station. The train was there. It had apparently started to move off but had to stop again because he had just been standing there staring at it. The driver must have realised and called for assistance. As I waited to cross (the boom gates were down) two members of the police force were removing him. The train left and I went on but I wondered how the police would cope with the incident. It may be their role - but it isn't their responsibility. We should not have closed the places that gave some of these people structure to their lives and something to do during the day.