Dear Editor:
Re: Some humble wishes for Christmas, Our View, Burnaby NOW, Dec. 20. Wish number 2 is for “a real homeless shelter in Burnaby.”
When I did my nursing training, those with mental illness were treated and, if able to be helped to where they could live in the community, they were discharged with the necessary support. We did not have the tragedy of people not having a home nor the level of addictions we now do. The facility where I did my psychiatry now has services such as family practice, i.e. more population but reduced treatment for mental illness.
Homeless shelters for the vast majority of the homeless are as effective and humane as admitting someone with cancer into hospital but not providing surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The reason for the hospitalization is not treated as the reason for so much homelessness is untreated mental illness.
Sending someone from a homeless shelter out in the morning despite whatever the weather might be, without food or the funds to eat and to the “candy men” drug dealer parasites who will know where their “customers” have been overnight is not caring for the homeless. They might be “out of sight, out of mind,” and some in the community might feel something good has been done for the homeless, but shelters are like Band-Aids over infected wounds. They have not taken care of the cause. The Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Whalley and other areas where there are homeless shelters are tragic proof of how inhumane homeless shelters alone are for those struggling with untreated mental illness and addictions, with some addictions being the result of people self-medicating in an effort to numb the pain of untreated mental illness.
Many of us are looking with great hope to our provincial government’s Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and to other resources to provide adequate, accessible, effective treatment for those suffering with mental illness and addictions and also accessible, affordable housing, which we also look to our federal government to provide.
Diane Gillis, Burnaby
