Letters: We need greater mental health services to prevent more tragedies

Jules Turk (inset) and the bus stop on Shore Rd in Remuera where he often spent his days.

Letters to the Editor

Letter of the week

Mental health services

I was saddened to read the fate of Jules Turk, a transient who died alone on a street corner in Remuera. When our major psychiatric hospitals closed down, it was promised patients would receive community care.

It’s plain that there will always be patients suffering from conditions like schizophrenia, who are unlikely to get better. What we need is the mental health equivalent of a retirement village; where patients can have their own unit and live with dignity. Staff on-site could provide oversight, help patients to remember their medication and take action if they saw a patient lapsing into psychosis. Some of the tragedies that happened in Jules’ life (like the attacks on his father and the hotel manager) may have been prevented if genuine community care had been provided.

Kathy Simpson, Freemans Bay.

Disenchanted with our political system

As each decade passes, one becomes more disenchanted with our political system.

The taxes wasted on projects that are disbanded or cancelled when there is a change of government run into tens of millions of dollars. No party is blameless regarding this waste, with all contributing to egotistical bad decisions. When Labour tried to introduce Three Waters or Auckland and Wellington rapid rail, it did so without any buy-in from the Opposition.

Millions of dollars had already been spent on planning these projects but that was all lost in a blink of an eye. The current Government’s handling of the Cook Strait ferry fiasco would be a number one hit on Netflix, except you will have to wait at least another four and half years for a hopeful ending. Surely in the interests of continuity and financial competence, there should be some sort of collaborative agreement between parties when capital works are put on the table. Currently it seems one-upmanship is the name of the game.

Reg Dempster, Albany.

Ghahraman needs her friends

I wish someone Golriz Ghahraman respects and trusts would encourage her to stop creating drama and get the help she seems to need.

Following the disgrace of her shoplifting convictions, which resulted in her resignation from the Green Party, in an interview with John Campbell she described her shoplifting as acts of “self-sabotage” motivated by work-related stress and online bullying.

Unfortunately, Ghahraman has again made the headlines, this time in a rant about her bottomless brunch in an Auckland restaurant being cancelled midway through her group’s booking.

It would appear that over-indulgence in alcohol was the reason for this. But rather than discreetly accepting the restaurant’s standards, she’s taken to social media saying what happened was racist, and encouraged people not to go there.

However, I would suggest that far from discouraging customers, her social media post will have the opposite effect. People who want a pleasant dining experience will go there knowing disrespectful behaviour will not be tolerated.

Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.

Move freight on to rail

If the Government were to get more heavy freight – such as long-haul, inter-city freight, containers and forestry traffic – on to rail, which the Government owns, this would reduce the damage to the roads caused by large, heavy trucks, which will only occur again despite billions being spent on them by the taxpayer.

The Government and KiwiRail need to put in place a continuous pipeline of improvement works, such as there is for the state highway system, to speed up freight and increase capacity in Auckland, and expand the rail network to places like Ōkaihau, Kaihu, Marsden Point, Rotorua, Taupō, Whakatāne, Te Karaka and Whatatutu from Gisborne, and Nelson to get log traffic off the state highways and on to the state-owned rail network.

A new ferry service also needs to be established between Wellington and Christchurch, and Whanganui and Nelson to provide resilience, and a new rail line built to link Botany and Auckland Airport, running the route Sylvia Park-Pakuranga-Botany-Manukau-Puhinui-Airport-Onehunga.

Isaac Broome, Pukekohe.

Student loans

According to a lawyer (July 3) “student loan penalties deter skilled Kiwis from returning home”. Really? Do we really want people returning to this country who appear to have no idea on how to manage their own finances?

To call them skilled is oxymoronic. Surely when they took on their student loan, they had some sort of plan to pay it off? It’s called forward planning. If they didn’t, perhaps they should never have started their degree. I don’t begrudge anyone who is young and wants a bit of overseas adventure. However, to disappear overseas to supposedly better opportunities and higher pay and then conveniently forget they had a loan courtesy of the New Zealand taxpayer to pay off would seem to suggest gross negligence and stupidity.

The lawyer suggests the amount of debt that has built up was the IRD’s fault. This is just another case of people blaming someone else and abrogating personal responsibility. If these people can’t manage their student loan, what hope is there of these so-called “skilled” people contributing positively to our country.

Bernard Walker, Mt Maunganui.

Muldoon 2.0

Can someone please urgently advise Sir Peter Jackson not to even think about bringing Rob Muldoon back from extinction?

Bruce Tubb, Devonport.