Where is the love?

Stories like this make me wonder.

Australian social and mental health services are stretched thin. Too often it seems that there's more problems out there than we can solve, and as the above news article shows, sometimes the way we try to help doesn't really help.

Trying to refer a client to the appropriate mental health or social services can be a bitch. Too many services are taxed to the point where it's very often 'first in, best dressed'. I've been turned away too often when trying to link a client to services he or she needs.

I know a kid who's been homeless for the past two months. He's been moved from shelter to shelter, sometimes three times in a single week. Sure he can be made a 'ward of the state', but that takes time, and time is not something this kid has. He needs a roof over his head now, not after the courts deliberate for a month.

There's a childhood sexual abuse survior who sat on the therapy waiting list for a month because she wasn't 'high priority'. Hello the system? It may have happened four-ish years ago, but how 'high priority' does it have to be before it gets around to her turn? When she slits her wrist?

Don't get me wrong, people in the helping professions do good work. The problem lies in the lack of services, or in the lack of appropriate services. In the short term, we can try to promote existing services within our communities so that people are aware of them. The obvious long term solution is to increase investment to either expand existing services, or to create new services. Too many people in need slip through the cracks.