oh dunt she go on about it.......!

Dear Ms Jones,

it has now been thirty working days since you advised me that I would receive a response from David McAuley regarding the lack of a crisis home in Plymouth within twenty one working days.

Given this lack of response I am going to take my campaign forward with a questionnaire of service users and staff of not only psychiatric services within the city, but also associated charities regarding the need for a crisis home. I will collate the information received and send it to you, my MP Oliver Colvile, and the Plymouth Herald.

I am confused by the response concerning the Unit for people detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act I received from you, and the article in the Plymouth Herald, Friday September 14th. In the response I received, I was made aware that a unit already existed but was not manned. However from April 2013 it would be manned. In the article in the Plymouth Herald, it states that a new unit is to be built. Which one of these stories is correct?

I am worried about the article which was published in the Plymouth Herald on the 15^th September 2012, with the headline, ‘Mentally ill should be in hospital, not cells'. Apart from the objectification of people who happen to suffer from a mental health illness, within the headline; the article states that the Police want training on how to manage people with mental health illness when detained under the Act. I am appalled that they have not received any to date. The addition of a mental health nurse to their team would be the very least you could do with such an inappropriate set up. I do feel that the human cost of waiting until next April before this new unit is opened is too big and I can only hope that you will consider this very carefully. My experience in the custody suite of Charles Cross Police Station haunts me, and I am very concerned about how other vulnerable people may react when forced to sit in a locked cell within a very busy and frightening place; surely you cannot justify this under your 'care in the community' policy?  

Yours.....................................................