I refer to letter in which Anthea Ross asserts that there should be no reduction in hospital beds as support to people living with mental health problems is increased in the community (Letters, August 17).

In my opinion, admission to a psychiatric hospital should be the very last resort for people experiencing mental health problems and only after every alternative form of care has failed to maintain the individual in their home environment.

Care in the community, if delivered effectively, is not a cheaper alternative to hospital care but it is by far the most humane and effective.

Early intervention in psychosis has been shown to greatly improve the chances of younger people to live productive lives despite serious mental health problems. In the past we would have locked them away in asylums where they often sadly succumbed to institutionalisation as victims of an institutionalised system of care.

As recently as ten years ago, young people entering the mental health system with a newly-diagnosed serious mental health problem would have been admitted to hospital and found themselves on an endless carousel of hospital admissions, with their chances of maintaining support systems in their home environment diminishing with each psychiatric crisis and admission to the mental health unit.

Hospitals at best provide a temporary place of safety (although we should not forget people can and do kill themselves in hospital) and at worst sever people from their community and support networks making it ever harder for them to maintain effective networks to cope with the terrible blight of mental ill health.

Ms Rodrigues is to be commended if she is indeed increasing proactive community support services in favour of hospital beds.

Kevin Lindsay
Montpelier Road, Brighton