Dr Adrian Plaskitt - Stockton, New South Wales

Kim Lec

Thank you for writing the article for The Guardian which tells the truth about the state of mental health care in Australia. It is bad, whether you have money, or not. We stopped caring for people a long time ago. The hospitals can house people for a time. Give them pills. Some of the shrinks in the public system are way better than the private ones. In every way. But they are overworked and understaffed. The fact that we diagnose ourselves and others is part of the problem. A lot of the social structures where people could gather and talk have disappeared unless you have money to go out to a club - which when you're trying to afford food and water and electricity - is not always an option. It seems modern society especially in the cities - is set up to increase loneliness - everyone is too busy trying to keep a roof over the head and pay for the basics. People also tend to try to take advantage of people who feel fragile - this is another massively under reported phenomenon. People either don't want to talk to you because you're "mentally ill" - or they're just too busy with their own jobs and families and concerns. The problem is most people are not mentally ill at all - they're human beings, having a sane response to an insane situation. Until we stop diagnosing(labels can disable) - and come back to the realization that people have a right to feel miserable when miserable circumstances present themselves - we'll have high levels of loneliness because people feel so different after they've been subjected to the inadequacies of the current system. Most people are survivors of a lot of neglect and unhelpful behavior from the people in their lives - keeping it secret so you can stay with your family and not be put into foster care - as someone once said - until we stop using words to hobble each other for personal gratification - the problems of living in this world will continue to affect us more than they should.

Tracie Dean