Letters: Mental health a community issue

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Much has been said recently about the state of our mental health system.

Approaching a general election, the time for a robust debate is long overdue. Politicians need to realise this problem is largely fuelled by policies that haven't worked, nor will they.

Of interest to me is mental unwellness as a result of a physical injury and its effect on our mental well-being and or a head trauma event. My experience is that the two organisations we look to for help, WINZ and ACC, are established in a way that will challenge us at every opportunity, to prove the connection between the physical and mental aspects of our claim.

Proving your case is often well beyond the mental or financial capacity of claimants. You therefore rely on an advocate representing you. A law lecturer once told our class "justice delayed is justice denied", nothing could be more correct in the above case. Politicians have fiddled around with our Legal Aid service, our community is now a casualty of this.

What it means for claimants is the ability to engage a quality advocate using LA is no longer, many who provided this service don't want a bar of it any longer. This therefore often has adverse effects on us and many lose their way in life.

Mental health is a community issue, and is not going away on its own. So long as politicians only pay it lip service and put money before people, our communities will continue to struggle and it is little wonder our tamariki are now becoming the next lot of casualties on the slippery slope.

KEVIN JORDAN
Rotorua

Rebuild ChristChurch Cathedral

Re Jim Adams' letter (July 13) on the cathedral in Christchurch.

While I have agreed with a number of things he has written on this subject, his ideas are so short-sighted, in my view it's beyond belief.

Maybe he should have spent a bit of time in the square to see how many tourists came into town to admire the cathedral inside and out. A lot of money was spent in town.

Obviously this money wouldn't have been spent in town if it wasn't for the cathedral attracting the spenders. The cathedral is for Kiwi visitors as well as international visitors.

Jim says we can't afford to "waste" any money on it. Simple thing is, we can't afford not to spend money on it. Get this magnificent structure back to its former glory and the thousands of tourists will be back to admire its beauty.

The local business owners will have New Zealand's most popular tourist attraction back where it was.

K.M. KEATING
Rotorua