HELPING THE HOMELESS

Thank you for your feature on ‘The Hidden Homeless’ among older women (January/February issue).

I run a charity for those with mental illness. Many of the homeless suffer from mental ill-health. Once such individuals were housed in huge psychiatric hospitals.

In the 1930s, we had institutions in each of our major cities that housed hundreds, if not thousands of the mentally ill. These patients would stay until they were well enough to be discharged; the chronically ill sometimes stayed for life.

While there were many problems in such institutions, at least patients were housed, fed and clothed.

Recently, our charity received a card from a woman who had received one of our care packages. She had lost everything: marriage, home, job and her children. She had slept on the streets for 35 days, only surviving through the kindness of strangers.

Finally, she was admitted to hospital, where it would seem she should have been in the beginning, not languishing on cold concrete on our city streets.

I was deeply moved by the thanks we received from this brave woman, who related how much it meant to her to know her community cared. She finished her letter with the words, “I will be sure to pay it forward.”

So many are suffering mental health illnesses, especially now we have COVID-related issues to the fore. Provision of care for the mentally ill needs to come high on the list of our priorities. Those who are homeless need our care and compassion.

They need to be in hospital being cared for, not being left at risk on our city streets.

Laura