Thursday 24 December 2015

There is no point in complaining about lack of public services when people vote for budget cuts

You cannot have your cake and eat it. There is no point in complaining about lack of public services when people vote for budget cuts.

If the moves towards Austerity go beyond what is reasonable, perceived financial problems will turn into dramatic social problems.

It is a well known fact that families affected by acute financial problems are the ones most affected by domestic violence because in the end something must give way.

There is a direct correlation between extreme poverty and deprivation with things like crime, domestic violence and ghetto realities including substance abuse and a wide range of anti-social activities.

A vibrant economy is not an economy in which poverty and deprivation prevail and extreme austerity measures can lead straight towards poverty and deprivation.. Disenchanted people are the ones who are more prone to get into trouble as they see society as prey instead of seeing it as something they would like to be part of.

In a society where extreme austerity measures are in place, public services are bound to suffer because people faced with very harsh realities are bound to put pressure on services like Health Services and Police. Alcoholism and other forms of substance abuse and related acts of violence are the root cause of many incidents that end up consuming much of the resources given to Health Services and Police.

It seems unreal that at the time when so many incidents are related to mental health problems, resources devoted to mental health services are evaporating for the sake of budget cuts. The legislation coordinating services like Police and NHS is quite inadequate and Police Forces end up having to release individuals that should have been referred for mental health treatment.

When Police forces are consulted they say that only in very extreme situations individuals detained are sectioned and forced to receive mental treatment. In other words, in the vast majority of cases people that would really benefit from mental health treatment get no mental health treatment whatsoever and sooner than later become involved in new incidents that could have even more dramatic consequences.

Police forces say that even when individuals who have been involved in acts of violence because of mental health problems get arrested and go to court the probability of the said individuals having mental health treatment is almost non existing.  

As this point, all the talk about prevention simply evaporates and public services like NHS and Police are overly burdened because there is no proper legislation in place and resources are being reduced.

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