Freedoms?

Published: 17 February, 2011

• ONE of the harshest cuts in the council’s savings programme is the plan to abolish the Disabled Person’s Freedom Pass scheme for people with severe mental health problems.

The freedom pass for mentally ill people seems not well understood by the council. It is not just a free pass but a freedom pass. Not just a monetary benefit, but a therapeutic aid.  

The council do not seem to recognise that mentally ill people are truly disabled. Mental illness does create mobility problems. The council have a narrow-minded view about what constitutes mobility and disability. 

If there are fewer services, service users will need to travel farther to reach them.

Mentally ill people are being left with little else. Freedom passes are not a luxury to them.

JASON ROBERTS, WC1