Editor:
We are to lose three mental health professionals here on the Lower Sunshine Coast (Coast Reporter, July 5). No need to worry, says the spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH): "There will be no loss in service."
Really? My experience has been that we already have too few resources devoted to geriatric mental health. A very high proportion of our local population is seniors and they also make up the majority of incomers. Dementia, in particular Alzheimer's, is sadly very prevalent and on the increase as we live longer.
Our very limited care home facilities all have waiting lists resulting in geriatric patients taking up beds in St. Mary's. All sectors of the health service are crying out for more resources and VCH must find budget savings, but to reduce staff devoted to geriatric psychiatry in this community is a mistake.
They were already the poor relation. To state that we on the Lower Sunshine Coast were "over-staffed" is, from my direct experience, nonsense, unless the resources we did have were badly managed.
Paul Rhodes, Sechelt
