THE EDITOR, Sir:
YOUR EDITORIAL 'Caring for the homeless' on Saturday January 3, 2004, is a revisit to a very sensitive but urgent matter, namely the mentally challenged street people. I believe that we ought first to acknowledge that there is a clear and indeed medical distinction between the mere homeless street person and the mentally ill person who has been abandoned to the streets.
There are quite a number of persons who though mentally stable have ended up living on the streets due to a variety of reasons including financial difficulties and domestic disputes. Invariably, these persons' stay on the streets is temporary, as they by themselves or with the assistance of friends, relatives or good Samaritans take rehabilitation action.
The mentally ill street person is quite a different person and creates a different challenge. I am of the opinion that the Government should become more actively involved in assisting these citizens. Indeed, I believe that it is a serious violation of the human rights of these citizens to abandon them to the streets.
In Ocho Rios one has a sense of shame and humiliation to see tourists taking pictures of semi-nude Jamaican street people. These obviously ill persons attack citizens walking along the streets and they in turn are attacked and at times mutilated and seriously injured by citizens.
We ought to express a sense of collective shame each day we pass these citizens reduced to human scavengers on our streets.
I am, etc.,
LINTON P. GORDON
lpgcordon@cwjamaica.com
Ocho Rios P.O.
St. Ann
