Madam, - The proposal to exclude addiction from the mental health services is inexplicable because it will only increase the risk of people with addiction problems ending up homeless on the street. It was rightly opposed in your letters page of December 15th by a number of professionals in the field.
As an organisation we have worked for over 30 years with people who lead what are often euphemistically described as a "chaotic lifestyle" in the jargon that has grown up around street homelessness. Addiction problems - alcohol and drugs mainly, though not exclusively - forced many of them onto the streets. However, it is important to underline that serious mental health issues are often also involved because people do not spontaneously become alcoholics or drug addicts. Whatever hope they have of re-entering society is reduced by the denial of the very services that might make it possible for them to find help.
We have already expressed serious concern about the report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy because of its failure adequately to address the accommodation needs of those who will no longer be looked after in mental hospitals. In the past, the failure to provide adequate accommodation and community mental health care when the programme of closing mental hospitals began resulted in former patients becoming homeless on the street. We still meet these victims of what was only a cost-cutting programme dressed up as a reform initiative.
Ireland now has the resources to properly fund mental health services and create world class community mental health care. But ill-considered reform will only create human misery and we must ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. - Yours, etc,
ALICE LEAHY, Director & Co-Founder, TRUST, Dublin 8.