Susan is in her thirties and has had mental health issues for many years because she has a slight physical disability. Because she cannot cope with her disability she has taken to drinking to numb the emotional pain, she still lives with her parents.
She is constantly depressed, has no quality of life and spends her days in her bedroom. The situation has got so bad that when she drinks she becomes like someone possessed. Her whole personality changes, she becomes violent and not in control of what she is doing. The police have come to the house often as the neighbours cannot take the foul language, screaming and shouting through the night.
So, what happens? The police take her away to a cell to dry out overnight. She appears in front of the Judge in Court the next day. All the proof is there (as this has happened many many times before) that this girl needs 24-hour help and support away from home. But what does the judge do? Gives her 20 hours community service and sends her home yet again.
Her parents in their 70’s are at their wit’s end, it will not end well. Either Susan will try again to commit suicide or her mother and father will end up in hospital or worse. The authorities know this and do absolutely nothing.
Filed under: Disabilities, Mental Health, alcohol, depression, mental health
