Very Sad Day
My Friend has gone to Whakamaru
Suffering from Empty Nest Syndrome Already
Both of the Baty Sisters
To me are Shining Stars
They are like Family

Tomorrow I Begin another Course
Of Counseling
The Isolation
The Desperation
Of Mental Illness
Needs to be Addressed
I have Sunshine
Above me
But the Road
Through Mental Illness
Needs to be Kinder
And more Effective
To their Clients
We cannot 
Lean on Medication
Unless We first
Make a Place
For People 
In Our Communities
It is Not Enough
To Leave People
To Self- Destruct
With little Hope
And Promise
Of Living Independently
Free from Stigma
Perhaps I should not Bitch
Because I am Lucky
Just to be Alive
Considering
But I see the same
Plight
In those Around Me
And because of this
I must Question
The very Ethics
Of Psychiatry
We cannot 
Stand Back
And Disdain
Our Fellow Man
We must roll Our Sleeves Up
And Offer them a Decent Chance at Life
Grief Overwhelms Us
It is a Terror
To Live with Mental Illness
And Discover
That instead of Helping
Psychiatry Condemns
What Hope is there
If Psychiatry
Dissects 
Consumes
and then Shuns
It's very Own Clients
What's going On??

Speed of Light

Quicker than the Speed 
Of Light
Death comes to Us All
At some Stage
That is Mortality
Fifteen Years
to "Three Score and Ten"
God Willing
I Will Make it
And Celebrate
Grandchildren
In Future
Can We Please
Protect the Children
Of Mental Illness
We have been
As Lepers
In Society….

If not
It would be
Kinder to Euthanaise
Is Mental Illness
A Judgement
By God
Or is it a Question???????
Jesus
Does not Disdain
He Loves
Shouldn't the Health System
Be based on Equality
And Justice
For All
Including those
And Especially
Those that Have been Toppled
By Abuse
Jesus would 
Hopefully
Put His Arms Around me
What is Gossip
But a Weapon
Of Destruction
If the Doors
To the Hospitals 
Are Closed
Why?
Why?
Why?
Do We Judge
So Harshly the Victim
In the Modern Age?
At the Core of Our Society
Is Paternalism
And Patronism
A Negativity
And an Unwillingness
Often
To Accept
That Psychiatric Patients
And Victims
Should have Rights
It's just a Litany
Of Contempt
In my Opinion
And When I Die
I Shall Report
Straight to God

An Unwillingness to
Accept
That We treat
The Mentally Ill
As Whipping Boys and Girls
From Lofty Towers
As Gods
We Condemn
Them from on High
We would not Hold Them
for We are Full
Of Nothing 
But Contempt
This Abyss
For the Mentally Ill
Must not Continue
The Law must Protect
And So must the
Health System
Please Must
That that is the 
Future of Psychiatric Care 

For Victims to have Safe and Fulfilled Lives

We cannot go on
Indefinitely
Acknowledging
That Victims
Are Compromised
And Stand back
And Watch Them
Flounder
We must Help Them
To mete out Dignified
Constructive Lives
Leaving People
With Their Rights
Protected
As it Presently Stands
It seems Victims are Lost
In a Health System
And Legal System
That stands back Dispassionately
And then Judges the Victim
We are almost as Hostile
To Victims as We are to the Perpetrators of Crime
It is Wrong
And this Anomaly
Must be Addressed
If Victims of Crime
Are to Live Wholesome
Full Lives
They Deserve More
Than to be Medicated and Sneered at
By the Professionals that are Overseeing
Their Care
At Present
There still tends to be an Ethos
Of Enmity
And Hatred
Filtering through the Health System
That is not a Healthy Environment
To Achieve Mental Health
for their Clients
Psychiatry must Reflect

Advice for the Chief Victims Advisor

I tried an Old Maori Superstition that my Kiako ??  Mere had once Quoted to a fellow Student Jude and I Remembered how to make the Point in the Stars.  I was Overjoyed and Privileged to Spend a morning at Pathways and to be Shouted a Luncheon as well.

My Advice to the Chief Victims Advisor
If You are to Protect
Victims of Abuse
In Violent families
You must find Occupation
In a Safe Non-Judgemental Environment
Otherwise the Cycle of Abuse
Just Trudges On
Like an All Consuming Monster
Very Often Victims
Of Abuse
Register for Psychiatric Care
World Wide
It is at that Stage
And When People
Present
They would be Helped
If they were Prepared
for a Safe Work Environment
Where they have Independent Means
At Present
We often Pity
And Condemn Victims
Instead We must offer Them
The Same Rights
As every other Citizen
Would Expect
Protect a Victim
Shelter Them
By Giving them Opportunity
And You will not end up
With Severely Disturbed Clients
At the Other End of their Lives
Their Circumstances can become
Very Grave Indeed
I think We Owe it
To those Psychiatrically Disabled
That We FIRST
Give them Work
Before We toss them back into their Communities
And if Necessary Medicate
With Great Caution
With Side Effects
Such as Confusion
Cancer
Kidney Disease
Diabetes
And A. C. C.
Not accepting Claims
The Environment
Is Ripe for a very Casual Attitude
To the Issuing of Medication
For there is little Reprisal

Give a Victim
A Life of Independence
That is What needs to be happening
Far more Often in the Psychiatric System

So much for Happy Days

Today is my Partner Peter's
Sixtieth
Sixty Years Young
He has Stood by me
And been a Real Ally
Thanks be to God
For Cepas
My Rock
Through Sickness
And in Health

Smiley

At Thirteen my Nickname was Smiley
As a Young Child
I was Happy
I was Able
And Clever
Then I hit Puberty and
the Turmoil Began
I wanted Desperately to be a Nun
But I Knew that to do that
After having a Lover
Was not Honest
And then Instead of being treated
As a Lady
Because of Psychiatric Illness
I am Laid Bare
And Vulnerable
I had an Intelligent Mind
And Observed first Hand
The Implications of Stigma
It filters through Law
And through the Medical Professions
We sit Back and Judge
And turn a Blind Eye
To Other Human Beings Suffering
At Worst We Laugh
And at Best We don't Judge
It is for God to Judge
That is the Question
I Ask
The Truth Always Surfaces
And Our Present System
Needs to Step Up to the Plate
And Invest in their Patients Lives
Rather than Condemn them as "Mental"
Mental Health at Present is a Farce
I've experienced Hostility
All the Way Through the Health System
If it is Enough for a Psychiatrist
to Lash back at you
And say that "My Behaviour was so inappropriate it is not a Wonder you father tried to Murder You"
When they Know what Happened
And Yet they Stand Back
And Condemn
Then the Whole of the Health System
And the Legal System
Needs to Change Inherent Philosophy's
So that We don't Leave Victims of Crime
Languishing
In Desperation
Wondering Why you are
So Despised
Drugging the Client
and then Tossing them back into the Community
Into the Same Hostile Environment
Is not a Fair Way to Treat People
We must be Curious
And not Obtuse
And Brutal
With Obvious Condemnation
Most of All
We must Honour them
As We would a Shell Shocked Soldier
This World is Brutal to the Vulnerable
Is that What Jesus and God Intended?
Everyone of Us is Precious
Let Us not Draw a Line in the Sand
And thereafter Stand Back and Condemn
PLEASE