When it comes to number-crunching, I wonder who arrives at the number of support workers needed to help vulnerable people with mental problems living alone?
I have two friends in this category. Both have long records of being in and out of psychiatric units.
The 40-year-old woman in Worthing has three support workers. The 57-year-old man in Hove has none, despite suicidal tendencies on several occasions, including throwing himself under cars.
He is totally outside any social services support network and mainly relies on elderly friends to cope.
Once again, he will soon go home to a lonely, bleak flat and the usual despair. The lady (in contrast) has been helped by medication and has now, thankfully, been stable for two years.
How come there is this "sheep and goat" system for psychiatric cases - or does it all depend on postcodes now?
-B Bailey, Monks Court, Lancing
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