I totally agree with Jeremy Walker (I’ve met many Valdo Calocanes. This is how a mental health crisis can lead to tragedy, 20 August ). We don’t need another expensive inquiry to tell us what we already know.
Mental health community services are underfunded to the point of non-existence. An inquest in April found that gross failings amounting to neglect were causative in the death of my daughter, Lillian Lucas, as an NHS patient in a private mental health hospital. In my opinion, such neglect is systemic in community services.
When she was becoming psychotic, my daughter would pack a bag for hospital and ask us and the community team for help. Other than encouraging her to run herself a bath and light a candle, no help was forthcoming – until it came in a police car, once she’d hurt herself or us. Our treatment of the most mentally ill in this country is appalling.
Ironically, my daughter was a mental health nurse. Her passion for giving a damn about others was reflected in the many NHS staff that we met. Unfortunately, crippling underfunding and the systems in place mean that the most mentally ill in our country and their families are subject to neglect.
Mary Curran Swansea As a father who has recently had the traumatic experience of one of his sons being sectioned, I can only wholeheartedly agree with Jeremy Walker’s description of how some mental health services have inbuilt bias against involving family members, and how incredibly unhelpful and damaging that can.