BOOK: Schizophrenia: Who Cares?

Schizophrenia: Who Cares? (Artaxerxes Press, 2010; ISBN 978-0-9565070-0-6; 192pp) is the story of my son's twenty-year struggle with schizophrenia – mine too, come to that. It is a story of periods of reasonable stability punctuated by hospital admissions, followed by discharges into the so-called community where it is never clear who is meant to be responsible for what, who will see that the patient eats properly, keeps himself clean, receives the benefits he is entitled to, has a decent place to live; where it is never clear who is responsible for spotting an approaching relapse and who is going to do something about it when it happens. Will there be a hospital bed available? An endless cycle of anxiety and uncertainty...

I have told my story because I know it stands for all those who find themselves in the same boat and I believe it needs to be told, for the "outside" world – and I include many of the professionals in that – knows little of the daily reality of living with schizophrenia. I have also told the story of our dealings with the care services, a pretty shameful record of incompetence, buck-passing and lack of communication and co-ordination. And I have not spared the mental health charities, for in their devotion to the sloppy, evasive language of political correctness they have allowed schizophrenia to become a cinderella, too tricky to handle, best left as a wallflower.

What others have said
Salley Vickers, author of Miss Garnet's Angel and The Other Side of You:

'This impressive first-hand account of coping with a relative suffering from a serious mental illness highlights the shameful lack of proper resources available for the mentally fragile in our allegedly "caring society." Tim Salmon's moving and disturbing book should be read by the families of sufferers but more importantly should be compulsory reading for all those responsible for mental health welfare."

Nina Bawden, novelist; author of The Birds on the Trees:

'I have just finished reading Schizophrenia: Who Cares?... Salmon writes of the bureaucratic hurdles he has had to face in order to get help for his damaged child; including as evidence some of the letters he has received from organizations supposed to help the weaker members of our society which reduced me, on occasion, to both tears and laughter. We could do better than this. Salmon's story – which I found a riveting read, a proper page-turner, might show us the way.'

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