Letter: Agencies must co-operate to protect the mentally ill

YOUR ARTICLE 'Yuppies take over the asylum' (10 January) leaves the reader with the impression that people with a mental illness living in Ealing have been abandoned to the whims of the property market. This is untrue.

A large part of the St Bernard's Hospital site has been redeveloped but this is because the hospital once provided in-patient services for people from surrounding districts, which have now developed their own services.

Money made from selling part of St Bernard's has been invested in developing services for people with a mental illness in Ealing. This includes a new pounds 10m unit which provides a 90-bed hospital, a 75-place day centre for people needing psychiatric treatment, and an 80-bed and 25-place day centre for elderly people who are mentally frail.

Eddie Kane and Carolyn Regan

Ealing Mental Health Authority