Cornelia Rau

Rau violates mental health order :

"Wrongfully detained woman Cornelia Rau has travelled to Melbourne, in breach of a South Australian mental health order."

I don't know that inside her head Cornelia Rau has violated anything. A mentally ill person has their own inner landscape which shifts and changes quite frequently. This is why she is mentally ill. She may not be herself, she may not be aware of herself and the thing with rules and regulations, they only have meaning to someone who is consistently themselves and has a head that works in a consistent manner. She has been detained in some very severe circumstances. She was erroneously detained in the first place because she had wandered off so it is probably her illness which causes her to wander at will and makes her difficult to keep anywhere. This is no one's fault.There is an old lady around here who frequently manages to wander off to the shops or around about when she is supposed to be in hospital. We all know her by name and we all look out for her and it just takes a call on the mobile and off she goes again back to the ward.Sometimes you can chat her back to the hospital if you have time. They do everything, but she is little and can slip out when groups of people leave. She is a wanderer. She never has any plans but she enjoys the endless wandering. Mostly she is caught before she gets past the door these days. Mentally ill people throw out a lot of challenges to keep you on your toes but it is not your fault when they don't seem to be co operating. The public advocate, John Harley , seems to be immensely sensible and compassionate. For the people here, for her family , Cornelia is a person who appears to be difficult to manage with regard to keeping in one spot.It is a strain on them. If she was going to Mildura and then ended up in Melbourne it is because that is how she lives and confinement seems to be the thing which disturbs her. She is , however, very ill. Her family knows this, people have constantly reported this and so John Haley's suggestion of making reciprocal arrangements a straight forward process makes complete sense. If the person is not a danger to themselves or others, but has a history of instability and is on the books, then there should be an Australia watch mental health support service. And now we all lnow Cornelia and Vivian , that doesn't strike me as a bad approach either, that we kno wthe faces of people at risk and we, as a community, can lend a hand.