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Lunatic London
A new book, Bedlam, examines London's treatment of the insane over the centuries, from the founding of Bedlam to the establishment of Victorian institutions.  People used to visit Bedlam to see the lunatics - there were 96,000 visits in 1814. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring sticks to poke and enrage inmates. -
Lunatic London
A new book, Bedlam, examines London's treatment of the insane over the centuries, from the founding of Bedlam to the establishment of Victorian institutions.
People used to visit Bedlam to see the lunatics - there were 96,000 visits in 1814. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring sticks to poke and enrage inmates.
Day time 'reality TV ' isn't it ?
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Old fella in new malden walks around after hours with a portable radio, usually ends up sitting at the train station smoking with some kid he's met. I saw him there once crying and yelping "you don't come and see me in hospital anymore", "why dont you see me anymore?".
When I was 16 and working in a shop on the high street he came in and asked me for something from the pharmacy. As I took him their it became clear he was schizophrenic, talking to someone who wasn't there, telling them to shut up. I turned my back for a few secs to help someone else, in which time he pissed himself.
the saddest man I ever met
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If any of these people you've met want a job, PM me.
I know a place that will take them on...
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To be honest I wouldn't mind be accompanied by two white rabbits everywhere I go.
But really, I don't see that here. Makes me wonder what is done for these kind of people? Are thy offered shelter or don't they feel the need?
I am going to assume that you have no knowledge of the conditions that mentally ill people live with, the effects they cause on their lives, and the effects that anti-psychotics have on the body, often making it difficult for people to want to stay on them. I am also going to assume that you have no knowledge of the cycle of care-feeling better-going off meds-getting worse-incident-getting care that often happens with people afflicted with mental illness. I am also going to assume that you have no knowledge of the difficulty in maintaining funding, and the sweeping changes made to the mental health care system that occurred during Thatcher's time (I'm pretty sure it was then), which limited the amount of time that people can be institutionalized, and closed most hospitals in the country. On one hand, this was good - it means people may no longer be locked up for life, on the other, it's difficult, as it means more people may be out in the community when they are likely to be unstable. However, it is their RIGHT not to be locked up if they are able to mostly maintain stability in the community. Yes, people are killed/harmed by the mentally ill, but not nearly so much as by the perpetrators of other random acts of violence.
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it would cost billions to save those 11 lives every year and many thousands of people would not be allowed out into the community unsupervised.
if you want to bring it down to a £/human life ratio the government probably thought it better to spend on something like a road safety campaign, cancer screening or bombing the fuck out of oil ritch countries with despotic leaders.not judgin just sayin like.
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ribbing from his mates?!?!?! this makes me feel more angry and hopeless than I can express.
Don't worry I'm sure it's done in good spirit, and he's ok with it. RE your post after - well said.
My flatmate works with mild mentally ill criminals. It's a sort of halfway house/open prison style place. Most of the people they deal with are quite old tho, so not as dangerous. They try and work with them to be able to have some sort of vaguely productive life. But it's never really going to happen.
On the point of releasing the mentally ill into the street who go on to commit crimes. A huge proportion of criminals do suffer from some form of mental illness. IMO It would be a lot more useful if proper money was spent on these people, which would also reduce 'real prison' size and allow prisons to focus on doing their supposed job.
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This wasn't on the streets, but a few years ago i saw something *very *weird whilst a passenger travelling along the motorway in Italy.
I saw a naked man (mid 30's) in a field parallel to the road stark naked pleasuring himself to oncoming cars.
After seeing this a minute passed with me trying comprehend what i saw, and also see if anyone else
mentioned it. After fighting the urge to forget it, i mention it to a shocked and bemused reception from my family. -
My Mum works as the head of a chaplaincy team for a large psychiatric hospital in london. I've been in to run errands for her a few times over the last decade that she's been working there, and we often talk about mental health care issues. Often it's about the stigma attached.
Debates or conversations surrounding mental illness are always characterized by a lack of good, evidence based information. It's so sad particularly because mental illness is so common. All of us know someone who is suffering some form of mental illness, or has done- or it may be us. So why is it so mysterious?
On a forum where we justifiably portray ourselves as vulnerable cyclists who are on occasion victimized by aggressive motorists, if we just empathise with some of the most vulnerable people around us that'd be a good start.
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When I lived in Clapham, the house opposite was a "halfway" house converted into flats with 4 blokes in who used to live at St George's, before they closed it down and sold the land for yuppie hutches.
Same cycle over the 6 years I lived there. They'd get released from hospital, be OK for a couple of weeks, then stop taking the meds, get progressively more barking till the men in the white coats came and took them away again. Then the council men in white coats would come and empty, fumigate, clean, decorate and re-furnish. Few days later, we'd start all over again. And again, And again.
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I'm terrible at being ribbed so I guess I was thinking about what I would feel like. But man, still seems pretty wrong to me!! I hope they've properly sussed out whether or not he actually feels OK with being ribbed about it.
We were not really the soft and squishy "ooh I hope you're ok, darling" types, and taking the piss out of each other on a continual basis for anything and everything was the order of the day. After he'd got out of hospital I think it would have been genuinely humiliating for him to have all his friends suddenly pussy-footing around him and pretending nothing had happened while still giving each other the same abuse we always did. Different people react to things in different ways and if he wasn't able to handle the fact we were all a bunch of insensitive arseholes (him included!), he wouldn't have kept hanging out with us. It was merely the nature of our normal interactions.
Without any professional understanding of mental illnesses, admittedly, it would seem to me that keeping things normal after somebody has been through an abnormal experience is crucial to their understanding that the support of ones' friends hasn't changed.
Not that we were a supportive lot at the best of times. We made fun of his haircut, too. I mean it was a pretty bad haircut.
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The powers that be/was closed friern barnet,thats why theres loads of abandoned care in the community in camden.tooting bec mental hospital is now a large housing estate,loads of care in the community housed locally around the surrounding area.the old system of care was tragic and so is the new one
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I think one of the most saddening things I've ever seen, which this thread reminds me of, was a naked woman outside what used to be the Woolworths in Camberwell. She was stark naked, not even any shoes, in her mid 40s at a guess and quite probably had just done a runner from the Maudsley a psychiatric hospital up the road.
She was clearly distressed, the anguish and desperation obvious in her face, as she looked around at her fellow 'normal' human beings who were utterly polarised by her predicament and either staring with eyes on stalks or making an effort to not look and quickly walking past at a safe distance. Many were even crossing the road to avoid her. I wanted to try and help but realised that an enormous male oaf approaching her may not be the best tactic. Fortunately two women had come out of a nearby pharmacy and were trying to calm her down. One of them attempting to put a coat over her as she fought it off and started sobbing.
With the efforts of these two ladies my faith was almost restored. Until a white van drove past, tooted several times loudly, with two grinning morons hanging out of the windows like apes shouting "ello darlin!" "waaahheyyyyy!!". I couldn't help but wonder who would have been better off in the psychiatric hospital.
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sad to see the white rabbit fella is getting the bus these days. he used to rollerskate everywhere. maybe that was the summer, i forget.
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Strange people on the streets
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marigold directing traffic on a Norwich roundabout (wore yellow rubber gloves)
top nutter.