I READ the news today, Oh boy. A woman in her fifties, Ms X, who was “homeless, cold and miserable” appeared in court for being abusive towards her support worker.

She admitted using threatening or abusive words to cause harassment, alarm or distress by shouting insults at her outreach support worker on New Year’s Day outside Calverts Hotel, which is being used as a homeless shelter.

Her defence lawyer said, on talking to Ms X, it shines through that she is a very good, honest person and accepted she has a problem with drink.

He said, when asked if she was drunk, she answered, ‘of course I’m drunk — I’m drunk all the time’.

He said at the time of the offence, ‘perhaps more unfortunate than bad’. Ms X was given a six-month community order to include ten rehabilitation days and must pay a £95 surcharge.

The above is a shortened account of what transpired last week, not last century.

I struggle to understand why this woman, who is clearly in the grips of full-blown alcoholism is:

A. Being given a place in a homeless hostel which allows no alcohol or drunkenness and

B. Why the criminal justice system is being utilised to deal with a drunk, insulting, homeless woman

C. Why it is perfectly ok to name, shame, and punish a clearly unwell woman publicly.

The answers are clear as day. Residential treatment facilities for addicts are practically non-existent.

Since 2013 they have been cut by nearly 50 per cent. Of those left, most are run by charities or private companies. Funding individuals is down to the whim of local authorities, who in turn have had their funding cut and cut again by central government.

There’s a whiff, more like a stench, of the addict being undeserving of any help. When you unpick the demographic, 85 per cent are alcoholic, 75 per cent of drug addicts have mental health problems.

Having worked in mental health for many years, I can assure you that these problems don’t come out of nowhere. The vast majority of patients come from pretty grim backgrounds of physical, mental, sexual and emotional abuse, or neglect and trauma.

Things that if they were picked up early, and proper expert help given, would ultimately not be left to rot inside an individual, who, self-medicates the internal hell away briefly with alcohol and drugs and then finds that is the only way they can manage to live in this society with the amount of pain they carry, permanently. Society then shuns, shames and punishes them for being ill. Yet, offers no effective help and support.

Homeless hostels serve a purpose but have no expertise in mental health or addiction.

So, I’ll leave you with a question. What kind of society do we want to live in? One that looks after and helps our abused and suffering and gives them the support they need to survive?

Or one that sees the victims of mental distress punished and seen as less than human, who deserve to be homeless, cold and miserable?

There seems to be a vicious cycle of an abused person self-medicating in order to survive this society, then society abusing and punishing them.

Surely this madness has to stop?