Homelessness - Horrendous figures given

The life expectancy figures for the men and women who, through no fault of their own, are sleeping rough are horrendous. However, there was another figure that caught my eye - 45% of homeless people have diagnosed mental issues.

Now, how many people can remember care in the community, when because of the wording metal health hospitals were closed down in their hundreds claiming they were ‘Victorian’.

Back in 1982, I worked as a nursing assistant in St Lawrence’s Hospital at Caterham, Surrey.

Here we had those patients that require 24-hour, round-the-clock surveillance to those who were allowed out with supervision on a daily basis.

With three meals a day, pocket money, heated wards and dormitories, their own bed with clean sheets and blankets, clothing and shoes provided and medication prescribed by qualified doctors and nurses, their every need was catered for.

Yet here I read in our Market Rasen Mail, in 2018 a story that tells us all that in fact we haven’t progressed forward one step - we are taking them all backwards.

Nino Hoblyn

North Street, Caistor