In a country where everyone has always derived their identity from uniformity and homogeneity, being ‘different’ is not something that has been easily understood. I was horrified hearing a doctor in his 60s recount how he still remembers seeing a severely mentally ill patient in a cage 40-something years ago.

This kind of attitude toward those battling unseen monsters does not just evaporate overnight and the remnants of this way of viewing the misunderstood are still very much with us in the way the State chooses to handle or,  rather, not handle mental illness.

In the same week where we find out that €46.7 million of our tax money is going towards funding a Gladiator movie sequel because it’s apparently going to bring millions to Malta, we have the head of the chamber of psychologists saying that both new and established psychologists are leaving the public sector due to low wages and burnout.

We have enough money to provide the greatest public subsidy for film in the European Union when our coffers are reportedly empty but not to put money into helping others. It’s a bit like saying that you don’t have money to feed your children but you somehow put together enough to have a fresh set of nails every two weeks, lip injections  and a butt implant from Turkey. Oh,  wait, that already happens. With priorities like these, who needs enemies?

I urge the people in power to stop spending our money on glitter and parties

It’s honestly too awful to even wrap your head around. Not only do people with mental health issues have to go through life being grossly misread and covered in stigma but, on top of that, when they finally do pluck up the courage to seek help, they end up having to become part of a system that is doing its best but is itself in dire straits thanks to next to no funding and no resources.

Apparently, if you can’t put it in a cast or a wheelchair for everyone to see, pain doesn’t exist. And I haven’t even started talking about the mental toll it takes on therapists to spend their days hearing about some of humanity’s worst facets.

Our suicide rates have increased, the number of people seeking help is higher than ever and all we keep getting are empty platitudes.

Where are the educational campaigns to make people understand mental health better and lessen stigma? Where are the reforms that were promised? Where are the discussions about how NGOs can be aided? Where are the pay rises for people in the sector to incentivise them to stay in an already taxing environment?

A friend told me you’d have to be mentally ill yourself to be willing to give so much of yourself for so little and it’s genuinely awful how true those cynical words ring.

I want to take this opportunity to urge the people in power to stop spending our money on glitter and parties and to actually fix the kitchen sink which is leaking into the whole house. Another film we couldn’t afford to subsidise anyway is not what we pay taxes for. This is not what people voted for.

Our money could have been put to far better use; it could have saved a life.