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Wake up and protect mental health centre
• I NOTED from last week’s CNJ that councillors have now voted to close the Jamestown Day Centre, an act of premeditated sadism that defies belief (‘Saved’ centre to close, Oct 19).
It is a little over a year since I last wrote to the press about this issue. At that time, Camden was a Labour-run council and I felt very aware that I was probably fighting for a lost cause.
After the Liberal Democrats (with Conservative support) took control, I foolishly believed that justice and decency would triumph. As a Liberal Democrat councillor I had given my support to centre users whom I had come to know through my position on the Mental Health Liaison Group, because I knew how much the closure would damage them.
I stood down in May, principally because of my party’s failure to address the impact of parking restrictions on those rights to freedom of movement and freedom of association which the Lib Dems had always claimed to honour.
In the immediate aftermath of the election victory, there were moments of doubt, when I wondered whether I had made a mistake. Now, however, I am glad that my good name is not associated with people whose callous hubris permits them to abolish a centre on the cynical pretence that it could be replaced with ‘outreach workers’.
Since so many of the present councillors are new and because there have been no liaison group meetings since the elections, there can be few on the council who have any significant experience of meeting social service client groups on a regular basis.
Yet they have presumed to understand the issues affecting those whom they have scarcely met.
The day centres provide that environment. The fact that some who suffer from mental ill-health do not choose to use the centres is not an indication that outreach workers would be preferable. It is proof that more day centres are needed, that some should be differently angled and that all should be open for longer hours.
Camden’s Liberal Democrat group prior to the May elections included some of the finest people I have ever known. I say to them now, wake up and do not be drawn into the abyss of failure and shame where you will find yourselves if facilities for the mentally ill are not protected and, if at all possible, expanded.
Some of the borough’s most vulnerable citizens need your help – and they need it now. Do not betray them by allowing their lives to be damaged and destroyed.
Heather M Thompson
Fordwych Road, NW2
• THE Lib Dems who promised during the last election campaign not to close the Jamestown day centre should work three days a week there and get to know what it is really like struggling with mental health problems.
They seems to have no idea of the users’ needs.
Do they not think that the support of an ongoing sanctuary is vital any more?
Have they proof that their ideas are going to work?
A friend of mine recently committed suicide who had no day-care services to go to where she lived outside London, and had to go into work each day with a depressive illness. Trying to fit everybody into the system is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
Name and address supplied
• I AM pleased to see that the CNJ covered the closure of Jamestown Mental Health Centre and the U-turn made by Tory and Lib Dem councillors.
While in opposition they opposed closure but in power they far too easily accepted the view that it was not possible to retain Jamestown and also to fund the new vocational training approach.
Why could other alternatives not have been considered? More money could have been put into existing vocational training to ensure real accessibility for those with mental health problems.
And why this rigid view that the mental health budget is fixed when money will be found to go into other services? And what about fresh alternatives such as trialing the new approach before closing Jamestown or seeking to make “efficiency savings?” Such approaches were not even considered.
The Lib Dems talk a lot about listening to residents. In the case of the Jamestown Centre a clear majority who responded wanted to keep the Jamestown Centre open.
But the administration felt it was worth taking more notice of those who did not respond. How does the administration know that those residents would like or make use of the new approach? It may be that there will be little take up.
Now that Camden is consulting on the new Community Strategy it is important that the administration listens and takes on board what people have to say.
Residents must also be fully informed about the range of priorities and funds available. There is little point consulting without giving out the necessary information.
I hope this Community Strategy consultation will be a genuine attempt to engage all sections of the community and that the administration will be open-minded and prepared to listen to what they say.
Otherwise, as seems to be the case with mental health provision, this will be an expensive and time consuming process that serves little purpose.
Cllr Maya de Souza
(Green Party)
Highgate Ward
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