Loonies on bikes

There is a school of thought that mental illness is fictitious just because it is in and of the mind. As a victim of depression and psychosis I have not always known who "I" is or what that "I" is doing and certainly could not guarantee consistent socially acceptable behaviour or pronouncements.

Mine is a mild inability to relate to myself and others properly. Others have tiny glimpses of the reality others believe in rather than short glimpses of otherness like me.

When residential and psychiatric care is cut back the mentally ill cannot just get on their bikes and suddenly become normal enough to earn a living and care for themselves so they end up isolated and untreated in the poorest housing on the market until they either demonstrate that they are a danger to others or simply die.

It is easy to cut where recipients are least able to complain so all flavours of central and local government do this. In Hitler's case this was taken to the extreme by transporting the disabled to the death camps. Is neglect so very different?

I believe there is a tacit agreement to care for each other at the heart of the notional social contract that forms the basis of a democracy and would hope that this survives even in hard times