Editor:
As someone whose close relative suffers from mental illness, I feel qualified to comment on Dr. Martiquet's latest column (Coast Reporter, Jan. 1).
He implies that there is little difference between mental and physical illness and that employers and landlords who hesitate to involve mentally ill people simply do not "know any better."
Excuse me, but the difference between physical and mental illness involves behaviour. Mental illness would not be a problem if this weren't so. I know that some who suffer from mental illness make reasonable (even good) employees or tenants. However, it is not always ignorance, but past experience with those whose illness involves anti-social behaviour that puts prospective landlords or employers off.
For years, my partner and I rented out a room in our home. Because welfare pays no more for accommodation to the sick than to the well, people who can not psychologically handle such shared accommodation are forced to do so. (It is an under-funded system that truly oppresses the mentally ill.) The majority of those we rented to had mental illnesses and/or addictions - these were the people who showed up.
When our financial situation improved we stopped sharing our home. We have the space and would rather earn extra money providing affordable housing, but we have neither the time nor the training to look after a person with serious problems, nor were we being reimbursed for this.
If Dr. Martiquet believes we made this choice out of ignorance and prejudice he is free to open his own home to a desperate individual. I'm sure he has more space and better qualifications than we do to handle any problems that ensue.
Anne Miles
Gibsons
