Day 76: SANE

Today, I want to share the effect an article had on me when I read it in last Sunday’s The Sunday Times (UK). It was an article about mental illness and the setting up of a charity called SANE to deal with what is apparently a chronic shortage of adequate care facilities for those who are in acute need of treatment.

In a civilized and prosperous country it is nothing short of a scandal that provision for those with serious mental health problems is poor, and according to the founder of SANE, leads directly to 100 suicides a year. So moved was I by the article, that I will investigate setting up a fund from the proceeds of my book to go to this or a similar charity. All too often, around the world, those who suffer from mental health problems are seen less as sufferers and more as causing their own illnesses and there is little sympathy, understanding or support as well as similar disarray in terms of funding and organisation of the services that are meant to care for them.

I need to research more about SANE, but certainly we can all do something to help by being aware that those with mental health problems are often the most reviled and ignored yet frequently simply because the causes of their illnesses are not known. Many have been sexually abused or been made homeless or have suffered other severe threats to anyone’s sanity, so we would do well to not see free will as being involved – often those who attempt suicide are doing so out of abject despair not any kind of true freedom. I hope that a recent reform coming through parliament will help but it is the public in all countries who can help the most by not giving way to prejudice or fear.

It is common to see people visiting inmates in prisons, but what schemes are there for people to support those suffering from debilitating depression, isolated in decaying psychiatric establishments? I think a sea change is necessary in how we treat the most vulnerable in society and needed now. For without charity, where are we as a nation or indeed as a world?

To learn more about SANE see http://www.sane.org.uk/