ADDICTS AND HOMELESS BOTH NEED OUR HELP

Re: "Enabling addiction is no solution," and "Use stimulus funds to cure
homelessness,"
June 14.

As a psychiatrist in England from 1961 to 1970 I saw the worst and
best of the old mental hospitals. From 1970 to 1997, I experienced
good work done in Saskatchewan with the transfer to community care. I
am dismayed by my experience in Victoria since 1997.

Repeatedly, the mentally ill suffer cuts in good community
programs.

Designating "mental health and addictions" as one composite program
has done a disservice to those with a primary mental illness and those
whose primary problem is addiction.

For the latter, we need more in the way of detoxification facilities,
long-term rehabilitation beds and possibly compulsory treatment orders.

For the mentally ill we need expanded community programs free from
hospital control, and medium and long-term care treatment facilities
for some with chronic mental illness, as not all are capable of
rehabilitation or independent living and working in the community.

An example of current muddled thinking is the reported movement of
mentally ill patients out of the Tillicum Apartments where they are
well cared-for and accepted by the community, so that those with
addiction problems can now be housed.

Appropriate settings should be provided for both groups, and one
should not be sacrificed for the needs of the other.

The hoopla and claims generated over the homeless obscures these real
issues.

Andre Masters

Victoria