Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

milasavesmoney wrote: »

Although I do feel it was a bit too soon to bring up this issue, it is not without merit...but probably a discussion for when everyone is not so raw from the horror of this sad sad ending to a young life.:)

How soon is too soon?

How long did it take the politicians to respond to Hungerford and Dunblane, Hillsborough and Bradford City?

If you don't strike straight away, the impetus is quickly lost.

daz278

do feel sorry for the family and friends of Jo Cox .......but some politicians in the past have been pretty blase over the substantial reduction in mental health spending.... but then again people sympathize with micro-economic argument should we spend more on health etc but complain if they attempt a macro -economic solution like raising taxes or pull spending from other areas.......Prepping my new kitchen shelving is rapidly filling up up with 2 or 3 tins of meat a week my dad supplies....hes turning my flat into a version of the Ark....bless him got him a fathers day card and a big bottle of rum for his coffee.....you all take care

GreyQueen

I have vivid memories of living in a large city elsewhere in the country at the point in the 1980s when the abomination called 'care in the community' was inflicted upon the vulnerable.

Between one day and the next, the hardened street drinkers were joined by the lost and the lonely mentally ill. I lived in an area which had 8-10 homeless hostels within about 100 yards. As such, I got a grandstand view of the hopeless lives many of the mentally ill and learning disabled who were formerly in residential care for were living in this brave new thatcherite Britain.

Thirty-odd years later, I can still recall one poor man, obviously severely learning disabled. He would be forced to leave his hostel before 08.30 am and would sit on the bench outside in all weathers, waiting until the door opened again at 6.30 pm. He was so vulnerable that he didn't even have the nous to walk a couple of hundred yards and sit in the warmth of the public library. And he was easy meat for the more vile of the uni students who would torment him, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits, chytes that they were.

Quite a few of the residents of Shoebox Towers are mentally-ill. Having to summon assistance for them isn't at all uncommon here. SuperGran, won't shrink from battling to help her neighbours, has gone head-to-head with the mental health teams before when neighbours are in crisis and are a danger to themselves. She has taken names on the relevent lines and told the professionals at the other end that if this ever ends up in a coroner's court, she WILL be there, giving testimony that they were told and they did nothing. And she means every word, and her determination has got some people helped before they could seriously harm themselves.

It's pretty distressing when you witness someone you know has severe mental health problems in a crisis, screaming, stripping themselves naked in public, throwing themselves into the road, threatening to throw themselves off tall buildings (and we live in a tall building).:(

milasavesmoney

Fires are ravaging part of my state. 20 homes up in flames as of last night and over 1000 firefighters trying to begin to contain the Dog Head fire. I listened to the news broadcast as people told what they took with them as they were ordered to evacuate. Clothes, essential papers, pet food, precious photo albums. So many had to evacuate livestock...not an easy thing to do.

One woman was 6 hrs away and called friends/neighbors/relatives to rescue her 19 horses. It was a rush job but everyone pitched in and along with county services it was done. She told them to take everything that had a heartbeat off her ranch and not worry about the rest.

There was a community meeting for them last night and there were many tear stained faces after they learned which of them had lost everything. Many were from homesteading families and had been there for a long long time.

This leads me back to a topic we have already discussed a while back...having a thumb drive of essential papers/photo/accounts numbers etc. with you and I now think another one safe with a trusted 2nd party.

We so desperately need rain!

milasavesmoney

GQ we had the same thing happen to us when Reagan was president. They are still all out there with the drug addicts and drunks. They were literally turned out of our mental institutions. Many of them self medicate with drugs and/or alcohol. They make up the largest part of our homeless population across the USA. And we call ourselves a civilized nation. :mad::o

My son was a court advocate for the mentally ill/ homeless. He said the lack of services for not only the client but the families was just appalling. It broke his heart. He now has a job with the Department of Health to help facilitate treatment, care, whatever is available (little though it may be) for new patients. He has also worked many years in treatment homes for the mentally impaired. Long waiting lists... Many many stories.

My hat is off to SuperGran!!! Much admiration!!! :T:T:T:T:T

GreyQueen

:eek: Blimey, mila, just been looking at that on KRQE News 13. That's a lot of burned ground and lost homes. Those poor people.

Can see temps of 93 F. I've briefly been places that hot (Greece in summer) but can't imagine living in that heat, the place must be a tinderbox.

Hope you're not in direct peril?

Humidity is 6 % ?! Wish I could send you some of our 75% humidity and the chilly rain. We've got plenty of it.

ETA; SuperGran was a nurse all her working life (she is a pensioner now) and even nursed in war zones in SE Asia as a Red Cross volunteer. She's about 5 ft of pi$$ and vinegar and has faced down some very nasty crims, as well as bracing the Mental Health Crisis Team in their bunker before now. You'd want her as your pal in a tight spot. She's away this weekend so me and a couple of others are keeping a weather eye on Shoebox Towers and will be hitting the ole 999 (same as 911) if we need the Police or the ambulances down here. It will be a surprising weekend if nothing kicks off.

Yeah, Reagan and Thatcher were best buddies and playing from the same rule book. The rubble hasn't stopped bouncing yet......... may they rot in hell.

milasavesmoney

No, I'm a long way from there, over 5 hrs. I appreciate your asking though! We have 110f today here in the southern part of the state. Our air conditioning bills are :eek::eek::eek:!!!!!
It's so very dry...the entire state. And the state next door, Texas, just had serious flooding. Crazy weather patterns.

GreyQueen

milasavesmoney wrote: »

No I'm a long way from there, over 5 hrs. We have 110f today here in the southern part of the state.
It's so very dry...the entire state. And the state next door, Texas, just had serious flooding. Crazy weather patterns.

Glad you're safe. I've just put a fleece waistcoat (english-english for 'vest' - vest in english-english meaning 'undershirt' in US-english).

Am contemplating putting the heating on, it's about 10 celcius here, which is 50 F - I'm of the generation who was educated in the metric period but by teachers who were accustomed to feet and inches, pounds and ounces and farenheit not celcius. As such, I use both in an erratic and arbitary manner.

Still can't quite grasp the size differences between your country and ours; read somewhere that you could put the UK and most of Europe inside Texas and still have room to spare. Messes with my head, thinking about that.

milasavesmoney

I just looked up size equivalents and the UK would be slightly smaller that New Mexico, but to me anyway, infinitely more interesting because of the length of your history. Yes, we have ancient Native American ruins and many many tribes that date us but they do not have written histories, until the last 300 years (Spanish accounts). So our known history starts mostly with the Spanish conquest of NM.
The tribes have many oral histories and are very interesting to read but many others are guarded from outsiders and held dear.

We have vast space and big skies though. 300 days of sunshine. I just love New Mexico!

GreyQueen

I'm a fan of Tony Hillerman's books set in your part of the world. Very different to ye olde engerland. We've got an awful lot of history here, I keep finding knapped flint tools on my allotment - the people of the early Neolithic had their farmsteads up there. My city was already well-established 1,000 years ago (although the size of a modern small town). Dig a hole anywhere around here and you slice through an awful lot of ruins.

Still haven't found my own personal hoard of celtic or anglo-saxon coins, though, although I have met people who have, and this fair hand was dandling a Roman lead statuette from a household shrine last month, fresh outta the ground.

OK, going offline to read before bedtime, got a busy day tomorrow. Laters, GQ x