Carolyn Jeffreys: Enhance mental facilities

Josh Shaffer’s May 6 column “Don’t let Dix Hill’s patients be forgotten” was awesome. It is a shame the mentally ill are being tossed aside over a real estate deal. Everyone seems to be so greedy to see what they can do to get hold of that land.

Accommodations and provisions need to be made for those precious people who were housed on the property, as well as for the current people needing help who are having to wait 3.5 days in a local ER for a bed somewhere in the state. The world keeps tossing an increasing population of the mentally ill to the side. In this situation, it’s Raleigh that’s doing it.

A sum from the sale of the land should go to building a large mental hospital to house them. Possibly on a small tract of land with multiple stories to sustain multiple “beds for heads.” Or the sum should be given to existing mental facilities to add onto their existing space. Often the folks housed in these facilities do not have family, or they are so sick family cannot do for them.

Shaffer did a great job, not letting the tradition of “Dix Hill,” and its recipients, get swept under the carpet.

This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Carolyn Jeffreys: Enhance mental facilities."