We were sorry to read the tragic story regarding Liz Griffiths and her husband (Gazette, January 22).

We can empathise with Mrs Griffiths as we know from experience how difficult it is to get any help from the Mental Health Services.

We have in our extended family more than one member who has a psychotic illness. The strain on the family is enormous but we find very little help from the services is forthcoming.

The carer is left unaided and practically no calls are made on the family from the community nurses. The only practical help which has ever been offered is the day hospital at Green Lane Hospital, Devizes.

This consists of a room with a TV in it. The patients are unsupervised and wander around the grounds. Now the patients don't get a cooked meal at lunchtime, even though these are supplied to the wards 50 yards away. The rehabilitation houses have also been closed. The patient is normally regularly seen by a psychiatrist and meetings are arranged with the patient's carers but nobody really knows what the situation is like at home.

When seen by the psychiatrist, the patient is often deemed not to be ill enough to be sectioned, so the patient is sent back home again.

The psychiatrist says there is nothing he can do and the carer is left with no avenue open to him but to keep on caring the best way he can.

The carer is given the number of the Mental Health Response Team for an emergency and, in our case, the only response we have had is for an appointment to be made with a doctor and more medication issued.

This resulted in one of our relatives making two suicide attempts before he was admitted to hospital and then he had to wait over a week as no bed could be found for him. At one stage, this resulted in a mentally ill person looking after a mentally ill person and, although the situation was well known to the Mental Health Team, no visits were made during this time. It is luck that our relative is still alive. He has now made three suicide attempts in all and the stay in hospital seems to be helping him to get better. However, we wonder why it had to get to this stage before he was admitted.

We have heard a rumour that one of the wards of the hospital is to be turned into a geriatric ward. If this is true, how are patients like our

family's to be accommodated if there are not enough beds to accommodate them now?

Perhaps the hospital would like to reply to the points we have raised and let us know what services will be available to help families like ours to prevent such tragedies occurring.

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