Ellee Seymour

"The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If  we spend that money at  Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part, and I thank you for your help!"

Eliot Spitzer (former Governor, New York)

Yes, don’t we know it!!!

Hat tip: Winchester whisperer.

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This is the thought provoking question asked by my former Editor, Bob Satchwell, or Capt’n Bob, as we called him in those hallowed days at the Cambridge Evening News, after you know who.

He is now the distinguished director of the Society of Editors and I thought you might like to read his views about crime and policing today. He asks why crime mapping is so feared, and if anyone cares for victims of crime.

And he describes how he tried to get crime mapping started in Cambridgeshire long before Boris thought of it for London.

Surely knowledge is not only power, but a personal entitlement, and all citizens have a right to know about crime in their area.

This is what Capt’n Bob said:

IT was fascinating to listen to a discussion on the Today programme about policing and particularly London Mayor Boris’ interest is American methods that appear to have had an impact on crime.

The key issue raised this time in several US cities was crime mapping. In the US every crime – however small – is recorded on a local map and then made available to websites and local newspapers.

It is wonderful. Local people and companies are made aware when a burglary happens and it encourages them to fit extra crime prevention measures.

Glory be, I thought, that was just what I tried to get started with Cambridgeshire Constabulary back in the late 1980s. Sadly my cunning plan lasted only a few months. It was scuppered by a mixture of inadequate technology at police HQ and in our office – well it was the 80s – a touch of Luddism on the part of the police and, yes, you have guessed it, political correctness.

The BBC reported that Americans thought crime mapping was great. The public were getting to know what they had a right to know. Moreover local police chiefs were being called to account about why their methods were not working as well as those in the next division. It was all quite enlightening.

Then came the dead hand of British attitudes to public information. Crime was much more sophisticated and simple maps were, well, too simple. Mapping would stigmatise areas and might not take account of local economic conditions . . . blah, blah, blah. And then there was a warning from the Information Commissioner’s Office. Yes, you have guessed it again, mapping might breach the Data Protection Act because it might, just might, identify victims of crime.

Of course crime and its causes are complicated. Yes simple down-to-earth US-style solutions have their limitations. Victims of crime do deserve sympathy and protection.

That said, are we not all victims of crime? Is prevention no longer better than cure? In the UK is it really true that we do not have that same right to know that Americans value so highly?

I personally love data, even though it can open to interpretation. I would imagine that this kind of information is available under Freedom of Information, so why is it not readily available to British communities in the US way?

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This is a guest post by Calum Carr describing his wife’s desperate mental health problems and their frustration at being unable to get a diagnosis from the NHS, and for better funding for those in Scotland suffering from eating disorders:

I am campaigning – the first campaign post is here – to get NHS Lothian to provide assessments, diagnosis and treatment for Mrs Carr, to tell us what they believe is wrong with Mrs Carr and explain why she has had so little support and treatment. For more than 1 year I have tried to get answers. Our MSP has tried also unsuccessfully to get an explanation. In fact, the health board took more than 6 months to reply to the MSP’s second letter: a reply which did not address the key issues raised in the MSP’s first letter. We have hit a brick wall, our whole family is suffering, and now I believe that only by putting massive public pressure on the health board can Mrs Carr get the help she needs. I hope you can help us.

Until 2 years ago Mrs Carr was a fully functioning mother and Open University student with brilliant grades. Since then, and still today, she has severe mental health problems – anorexia, bulimia, self-harming, suicidal thoughts and attempts, has “disappeared” twice (police involved), dissociation and probably an identity disorder. She is unable to be a mother to our children and unable to study. She is a shell of the woman of early 2006. I have taken on all parenting and home responsibilities, in addition to being a carer to Mrs Carr. The whole family is affected. I now have moderate depression and am very stressed, and the children are showing signs of increased stress and anxiety. Earlier posts about Mrs Carr’s condition and the problems with NHS Lothian are here and here and here.

NHS Lothian has offered very little support. Mrs Carr has been treated as though she is a nuisance patient and each hospital department can’t wait to get rid off. Were it not for a brilliant private counsellor, I have no doubt Mrs Carr would no longer be with us.

Mrs C is getting no NHS treatment despite seeing consultants and has had nothing but anti-depressants since June 2007 other than 10 1 hour weekly sessions for bulimia – Jan to March 08. They didn’t have any effect.

Last year I wrote: “The only feasible explanations are that they do not believe the symptoms are real but are simply escalating attempts to get attention; that their diagnosis is that there is no long-term cure and informing the patient of this would be harmful; or that treatment would be be so hugely onerous on a therapist that they must deny treatment.

“Until NHS Lothian is open and honest with us, I will not rest. This is all I ever wanted; openness, honesty, trust in clinicians so that Mrs Carr has an opportunity to improve. What we have encountered is coldness, closedness, callousness, obfuscation, delay and a refusal to engage in any serious discussion of Mrs Carr’s problems.“The minimum NHS Lothian should do is tell us the truth. Then we can either accept their version or fight it but by refusing to engage with us (or our MSP) they leave us struggling in a vacuum.”

The system is killing Mrs Carr. In May I quoted Nick Clegg who spoke of mental health services with the NHS. I quote Nick not for any party political reasons, but simply because his words resonate with me:

“Mental health service users are perhaps the people who most need an approachable, effective and enabling NHS. We will know that we have succeeded when it opens doors to a brighter future for them.”

Don’t let NHS Lothian keep the door closed on Mrs Carr – help her, and help our children get their mum back to how she used to be before this nightmare started. Please support our campaign. Ensure throughout the UK, that the doors are open to help those who also suffer from mental health problems and eating disorders. More funding and early support desperately needs to be provided in Scotland to help those with eating disorders, the wait to see a consultant here can be a year unless it is critical. By then, it can be too late.

Thank you for reading this. If you can help, please contact me at calumcarrstakeatgooglemaildotcom

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