Camden New Journal - Letters: Ignored

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Camden New Journal - Letters to the Editor
Published: 29 November 2007

The mentally ill are not ‘others’ to be ignored

• THE Tottenham Mews walk-in users do not believe that the Camden Mental Health Trust has genuinely consulted patients about the proposed closure (Vulnerable deserve the chance of recovery, November 8).
How can we?
For months vulnerable patients were repeatedly misled by the trust board which informed us that that the centre would definitely close in October and that it did not have to consult us about it.
We were told to go elsewhere – like coffee shops – while the walk-in was systematically run down.
It is appalling that it took a patient’s threat of High Court action to make the trust obey its basic statutory duty to listen to patients.
Is it any wonder that service users were outnumbered by trust executives in their extra public consultation meeting held at St Pancras Hospital on November 1?
We feel disenfranchised.
Is this the kind of increased public accountability that the Department of Health intends by approving the initial stage of the trust’s application for foundation trust status?
In the meeting we learned that a long time user of the walk-in who died in August collapsed on the street due to self-neglect.
No family could be found to attend his funeral, only walk-in staff and users.
We were his family. Who will go the funerals of people like him if the decision to close the walk-in is confirmed by the trust board on December 13?
The mentally ill are not the “other” people to be ignored, or neglected. They are our mothers and fathers, our children and our friends.
The staff at the walk-in are experts in their field who help me hold down a job to support my family.
Surely this is what the National Health Service should be about rather treating patients like second-class citizens.
NAME and ADDRESS supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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