Homelessness across Canada has reached astronomical levels and tent-cities have become the norm in many communities.
Mentally ill people are left to fend for themselves, with many self-medicating and living in terrible conditions. A glance at the epicentre of the drug overdose crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side indicates a long-overdue need for mental health facilities to treat addictions.
Governments must bite the bullet and accept that the deinstitutionalization policies enacted several decades ago have failed miserably. Time to start building modern facilities to treat mentally ill addiction patients is right now.
We are being told from Ottawa that 2017 is going to be a year like no other. Politicians must be honest with themselves, governments must get the homelessness and mental health treatment problems taken care of before all this glad-handing and celebrating; it’s time for a little “Bah Humbug” reality to set in.
Bernie Smith, Parksville
