This week two reports were issued urging that:

1. People with Down's Syndrome and
2. Elderly people in need of care

should be moved out of institutions and cared for in the community. Those arguing for this say that it is not only cheaper, but also better for those who need care.

Similar things were said back in the 90s when Care In The Community was introduced for mentally ill people. However, in 2007 the Labour government ordered Mental Health Services to stop helping the mentally ill. It said that life was too easy for them, and they should be forced to do things for themselves. This was part of a cruel strategy to 'force them to stop being mentally ill'. The fact that Labour did this even before the 2008 financial crisis shows there's more than one nasty party in this country.

Despite the cut in spending this enabled, budgets for care of the mentally ill have continued to be cut, with almost no publicity.

For me personally, this has been catastrophic. I'm really too ill now to write about it. I can't even feed myself properly, but when I ask the Community Mental Health Trust for help, they just say "That's YOUR problem".

A few months ago a mentally ill woman stopped taking her medication and burned herself to death in the toilet of a train. The Inquest ruled that her care had been "adequate". That gives some idea of how low the standard of care for mentally ill people has become.