Mentally ill murder 400- a rate of 1 every week
More than 400 people have been killed by mentally ill patients released into the community in the past eight years, a government inquiry will reveal this week. The Department of Health study, concludes that on average 52 people a year — one a week— are killed by mentally ill patients. It will say that a significant proportion of these deaths could have been avoided, had it not been for health service failures or legal loopholes.
Almost a third of the killings were committed by people judged by mental health staff not to be a risk to the public in the week before the killing.
One in six deaths were attributed to the failure to ensure that the mentally ill patients continued to take their medication once they had been released into the community.
Professor Louis Appleby, who headed the inquiry, said not enough had been done since the high-profile killing of Jonathan Zito in 1992 by a schizophrenic patient let out into the community.
The government has been promising new legislation for the past seven years but, until the publication last month of a mental health bill, has failed to implement ANY reforms.
Among those killed in that time are Brian Dodd, a retired accountant stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic after care workers failed to check on the patient’s whereabouts every 12 hours, as required, and Detective Constable Michael Swindells, who was killed by another mental patient whose health workers did not check he was taking his drugs.
Last month an inquiry into the murder of Denis Finnegan, a retired investment banker, in Richmond Park, southwest London, found one of the reasons for his death was his killer’s failure to take his medication for paranoid schizophrenia.
Professor Anthony Maden, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, who works at Broadmoor high-security hospital and advises the Home Office, said: “If you have close involvement with just one of these cases, you never ever want to see it again.”
Ministers will now push ahead with plans to introduce new community treatment orders — so-called mental-health Asbos — to force mental patients to take drugs after being released from hospital. Those refusing to do so risk being sectioned. The system for checking up on patients in the community will also be strengthened in the new year.
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness found that 5% of all killings were committed by schizophrenics, who make up 1% of the population.
Appleby, who is also the government’s national director for mental health, said: “We have to acknowledge how many [killings] might have been prevented had we acted earlier. Quite a lot of these cases have preventable elements. For example, 25% of patients committing homicide had stopped taking their medication.
“We looked at how many might be prevented by the community treatment orders — how many patients were detained, subsequently stopped their medication and then went out to kill someone. The answer is 16% — one in six of the 52 homicides.”
Appleby said the inquiry had also uncovered a “big issue about risk recognition and management”. “What we have done is look at the timing of the last contact with [mental health] services,” he said. “In 29% of the 52 homicides, the last contact was in the week before the incident. In almost all cases the staff rated the risk as low or absent . . . the risk was underestimated.”
The study said 18 murders were committed by people with a history of violence who were not getting adequate treatment.
Speaking ahead of the report's publication, Health Minister Rosie Winterton denied that the Government was failing to protect people from the dangerous mentally ill.
Ms Winterton said: "One of the problems at the moment is for the small number of people who are detained in hospital. If they are discharged there are some patients who don't continue to take medication, who don't continue to stay in touch with mental health services."
But Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said one in three of these homicides could be prevented.
Today's blog was compiled from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2484061,00.html
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13555128,00.html
On 16 Nov 06 Health Direct blogged: Scandal of Labour's blunders that led to murder by mental patient as the needs of dangerous psychiatric patients are being put before the safety of the general public, according to a report on the murder of a retired banker by a mental health patient. The highly critical report into how a psychiatric patient at a south London hospital escaped and attacked Denis Finnegan as he cycled through Richmond Park will reveal how a catalogue of systemic errors led to his death.
Chaired by Robert Robinson, a mental health lawyer, the report is said to be one of the most damning in the past decade. Over 400 pages it details a catalogue of preventable errors at Springfield Hospital which led to Mr Finnegan's murder. It concludes that a special medium secure facility in the hospital, the Shaftesbury Unit, must be closed pending an external audit.
Almost a third of the killings were committed by people judged by mental health staff not to be a risk to the public in the week before the killing.
One in six deaths were attributed to the failure to ensure that the mentally ill patients continued to take their medication once they had been released into the community.
Professor Louis Appleby, who headed the inquiry, said not enough had been done since the high-profile killing of Jonathan Zito in 1992 by a schizophrenic patient let out into the community.
The government has been promising new legislation for the past seven years but, until the publication last month of a mental health bill, has failed to implement ANY reforms.
Among those killed in that time are Brian Dodd, a retired accountant stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic after care workers failed to check on the patient’s whereabouts every 12 hours, as required, and Detective Constable Michael Swindells, who was killed by another mental patient whose health workers did not check he was taking his drugs.
Last month an inquiry into the murder of Denis Finnegan, a retired investment banker, in Richmond Park, southwest London, found one of the reasons for his death was his killer’s failure to take his medication for paranoid schizophrenia.
Professor Anthony Maden, a psychiatrist at Imperial College London, who works at Broadmoor high-security hospital and advises the Home Office, said: “If you have close involvement with just one of these cases, you never ever want to see it again.”
Ministers will now push ahead with plans to introduce new community treatment orders — so-called mental-health Asbos — to force mental patients to take drugs after being released from hospital. Those refusing to do so risk being sectioned. The system for checking up on patients in the community will also be strengthened in the new year.
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness found that 5% of all killings were committed by schizophrenics, who make up 1% of the population.
Appleby, who is also the government’s national director for mental health, said: “We have to acknowledge how many [killings] might have been prevented had we acted earlier. Quite a lot of these cases have preventable elements. For example, 25% of patients committing homicide had stopped taking their medication.
“We looked at how many might be prevented by the community treatment orders — how many patients were detained, subsequently stopped their medication and then went out to kill someone. The answer is 16% — one in six of the 52 homicides.”
Appleby said the inquiry had also uncovered a “big issue about risk recognition and management”. “What we have done is look at the timing of the last contact with [mental health] services,” he said. “In 29% of the 52 homicides, the last contact was in the week before the incident. In almost all cases the staff rated the risk as low or absent . . . the risk was underestimated.”
The study said 18 murders were committed by people with a history of violence who were not getting adequate treatment.
Speaking ahead of the report's publication, Health Minister Rosie Winterton denied that the Government was failing to protect people from the dangerous mentally ill.
Ms Winterton said: "One of the problems at the moment is for the small number of people who are detained in hospital. If they are discharged there are some patients who don't continue to take medication, who don't continue to stay in touch with mental health services."
But Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said one in three of these homicides could be prevented.
Today's blog was compiled from:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2484061,00.html
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13555128,00.html
On 16 Nov 06 Health Direct blogged: Scandal of Labour's blunders that led to murder by mental patient as the needs of dangerous psychiatric patients are being put before the safety of the general public, according to a report on the murder of a retired banker by a mental health patient. The highly critical report into how a psychiatric patient at a south London hospital escaped and attacked Denis Finnegan as he cycled through Richmond Park will reveal how a catalogue of systemic errors led to his death.
Chaired by Robert Robinson, a mental health lawyer, the report is said to be one of the most damning in the past decade. Over 400 pages it details a catalogue of preventable errors at Springfield Hospital which led to Mr Finnegan's murder. It concludes that a special medium secure facility in the hospital, the Shaftesbury Unit, must be closed pending an external audit.
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