SO LEEDS and York Trust are not commissioned to provide intensive services (Mental health care in crisis, The Press, November 30). Why? In some cases, a person who becomes mentally ill is extremely vulnerable and afraid and their family will be very distressed.

It is not acceptable to place them in the same circumstances as offenders, and yet this is what seems to be happening.

Sending them miles away will make it difficult for loved ones to visit. In this century we should not be adopting these measures for a section of society that has done nothing wrong. Until mental health is given equal status to physical health, then this shoddy treatment will continue. If this was happening in cancer care, there would be a public outcry. Mental health care providers who make decisions need to ask themselves a question. Would the current state of things be acceptable to them if they or their family became a service user?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

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