What do you do with people who suffer mental health issues and they are causing problems in a neighbourhood? This is what I have been thinking since I found out that my sister has won her bid to have her neighbour evicted after years of verbal abuse, noise and false accusations of attempted rape and sexual assaults against my sister’s boyfriend.

The women clearly has mental health problems and it is right that she should be moved out, but what do you do with someone like that?

Leaving them on the streets is not the answer, I have known people with mental health problems who have lived on the streets and it doesn’t normally end well, they need medical help and you rarely get it on the streets.

The council have moved her to another neighbourhood, this is also not going to solve anything as she will just do exactly the same thing to her new neighbours as she has been doing to my sister and her family, and the family before that.

So what is the answer? I believe she should be placed in a hostel where she can have access to medical help, or failing that maybe a short visit to a hospital. But what if she refuses treatment? Then she should be forced to have it.

I know that is not a popular method with the human rights brigade, but when you have mental health problems like that you are not usually in a position to decide what is good and safe for you, you need other people to step in and make those decisions for you.

Photo by Monica Myers from FreeImages