Posts by Neil
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to nzlemming,
Say what? National spent nine years ignoring this. Labour has had 6 months to find out about it
The denial was (is) deap and wide. Nikki Kaye had little success bringing it to the attention of her cabinet colleagues and Twyford didn’t listen to those who knew.
-
Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
One of the problems we have is that we tend to run these sectors in isolation when we know they all have impacts across all sectors. I don’t think there is a perfect answer but I’m pretty comfortable with the idea of building good homes having pretty positive impacts for health and education.
It’s a difficult juggling act. We should at least have the complete picture of what money is being spent.
It’s probably not quite what you were referring to but the issues of building quality are going to have a major impact on the government’s plans.
We’re only just beginning to seeing the tip of the problem building iceberg in the public and private sector. And it’s not just a legacy of poor building practices and incompetant council oversight from 20 years ago, it’s still going on but everyone is in denial.
Middlemore Hospital – everyone was in denial of the true extent of the problem. And there’s plenty more buildings like that that aren’t being talked about.
It’s a steamroller of financial destruction. National largely ignored the problem but Labour also chose not to listen to people who knew the true extent of the disaster.
Not only are we faced with trying to build at a greater rate we still have to deal with building problems from the past and don’t have any guarantees that present construction will be any better.
-
What’s the likelihood that this will just amount to the govt subsiding the middle class buying into Mt Albert.
Not many people see $600,000 as affordable.
We don’t know how much the govt is spending on this so we can’t really know if this money could have been better off being spent on health and education - to the benefit of many more.
-
i.e what ever the faults of places like Carrington those were not the fault of patients and yet they were the ones that paid a price by losing the benefits of these very important and valuable resources.
The State took it and give a pitence back in return. A not uncommon phenomenon.
-
Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to Russell Brown,
The old institutions certainly has their problems but one of their main positives was the park like grounds which provided ample space for quiet time in a safe environment, a sense of community and for gardening activities including vegetable gardens. All that was stripped away and that asset base - that one could argue rightfully belonged to the mentally ill community - was never compensated for.
Indeed more beds are needed in acute units but also more long term supervised residential care fascilitres that offer some of what was offered by the old institutions are desperately needed. At the moment it’s the likes of Dryden Lodge.
It’s an opportune time for a progressive govt to address this.
-
Hard News: The Unitec project: Something…, in reply to EE,
This land was an asset stripped from the mental health system. It could be an opportunity to redress that wrong by providing much needed long term supervised accommodation for those with major debilitating mental illness. With some of the original parkland for recreation and gardens.
-
$600,000 - and probably a lot more once building is completed - doesn’t sound very affordable.
Labour mischievously campaigned on high house prices being due to a particular set of issues. Now they have control of this development how come they can’t bring the prices down to what would truely be considered affordable.
-
Hard News: Fentanyl: it's here, in reply to ,
What you have quoted doesn’t indicate Tim Harding having any direct experience of acute meth withdrawal.
I’ve seen it and it’s essentially quite a few days of living hell. If you’re lucky that hell might get replaced by the somewhat lesser hell of acuphase. Anyone contemplating doing meth might want to look up the side effects of that as it could be the next drug they encounter.
People do not just sleep off a meth binge.
I have no problem with heroin or marijuana or exstasy or a number of other drugs. Their intrinsic harm is low. Some drugs are different. Pethadine is different enough to heroin to make the case for its legalisation more problematic. It has a shorter half life.
It maybe too late but making available low risk drugs may crowd out the high risk ones.
-
Hard News: Fentanyl: it's here, in reply to ,
Well yes, but I’ll bet they also get the decks clear when someone shows up having any other psychotic episode, that’s part of any other illness. Tim Harding, CEO of Care NZ says methamphetamine addicts are relatively easy to manage. They generally sleep in off.
By clear the decks I take it you mean health professionals taking measures to prevent serious physical harm. Meth psychosis is somewhat different to psychosis caused by mental illness. The risks to others are often far higher, deescalation techniques usually don’t work and psychosis from mental illness isn’t caused by someone selling harmful substances for a profit.
I don’t think Care NZ have much experience with acute meth detox.
-
Hard News: Fentanyl: it's here, in reply to tatjna,
KnowYourStuffNZ would like nothing better than to be put out of business by a better system, one that includes legal purchase, quality control, and labelling, and doesn’t pretend that prohibition had ever worked.
But not all drugs have the same minimal harm. People working in acute health settings do fear for their safety because of heroin but because of P.
There are anti-social people out there willing to make money out of destroying other peoples’ lives. There’s other people who fall into trouble because of circumstance.