Letters to The Province, June 7, 2022: Give those with mental health issues the care they deserve

Barbara Nielsen of Abbotsford says it was a big mistake to close Riverview Hospital and offload its patients to other agencies

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I read with interest the letter from Diane Gillis regarding the lack of care for our people with mental health issues who invariably end up homeless because of the lack of care. She mentions that she was in the nursing profession 50 years ago treating the mentally ill with good outcomes. She is so right.

I worked in downtown Vancouver in the late ’70s to early ’80s. I commuted by bus to Burnaby. My route took me through the Downtown Eastside. At that time, yes, there were homeless people and drug users, but they did not take over every nook and cranny like today. I could visit and shop in Chinatown without fear. Not now.

The difference? Some time in the ’80s the government of the day thought it would be a good idea to close Riverview and offload all those patients to different agencies. They thought that they would be more humane. It was the start of what we are witnessing today all over the Lower Mainland and elsewhere. Those patients began to fall through the cracks and it has continued to get worse until we have ended up here. A lot of the homeless have mental health issues and use drugs to escape from their pain.

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Time to open Riverview again and give those patients who need it the care they deserve, instead of letting them slip through the cracks again and again.

Barbara Nielsen, Abbotsford

Tagless cars is a bad move

I think it is a bad move for ICBC to not issue date tags for license plates. Now our parking lot monitor can’t tell if a car is insured or not, so we can’t have offenders towed to make room for our patrons.

There will be no public reporting of expired plates. There is no reminder of plates about to expire. I am sure that many people will take advantage as there will be no way of telling if they don’t have insurance.

They say that the police have reader technology to pick up on this, but they are not even enforcing the basics very well. Truckers are running yellow lights at the last possible second. People are still on their cellphones and they are speeding with little consequence for their actions. If I don’t exceed the speed limit, they are aggressively tailgating me. Many are illegally blocking their plates with bike racks and mounted boxes so I can’t report hit-and-runs or erratic drivers.

This change will be sort of convenient for some and very inconvenient for a lot of people. Why not have people apply online several days before they need insurance and then mail the tags to them? I don’t think this idea has been thought through at all.

C. Hardcastle, Richmond