AIBU to feel upset by my parents' views on mental illness

Don't attack me, there was no blame whatsoever in my post. It was simply a list of incidents.

It is a fairly common opinion that care in the community isn’t working.

many people have experience of family members/friends not being able to access the support they should have and desperately need and it can be quite scary being in a situation where you are pretty sure they’ll harm someone.

Well- having had a parent with schizophrenia I agree with them to be frank. People get very ill before they are hospitalised. The threshold is so high that there will be people walking about who really shouldn’t be. I remember one particular evening when my mum was waving a knife around because she was convinced the IRA were coming to attack us. Still didn’t get sectioned until the next day and the medical professionals in their infinite wisdom thought it was a good idea to leave her at home with me overnight as a 12 year old.

People in acute psychosis are not really safe to manage in the community. That is very different to managing people who can function.

This woman was homeless.

I have worked for homeless charities and you will find that many people who are homeless have undiagnosed or untreated mental health issues.

So you should also be blaming the poor state of our mental health support services due to lack of funding and the sad fact that in a rich country we still have a high homeless population.

The man in the alligator incident was with several carers who failed to prevent the incident. As long as we paid peanuts for carers then the profession will continue to rely on poorly trained and demotivated staff and such incidents will happen.

Basically it is very simplistic to just blame the mentally ill person themselves without looking at the wider context and how society constantly fails people with mental health issues.

In some instances people absolutely would need to be institutionalised but again the 'care in the community' thing was all about saving money rather than protecting the welfare of both the mentally ill person and the general public.

Agree, and yes while people are always saying “those with mh are more vulnerable from others than they are dangerous”. That’s not what’s visible in the media, especially in recent times.
There was a thread recently where a poster asked for advice after being told by a member of staff that they had frequent thoughts of violence towards and of harming colleagues because of OCD. The posts of “you are terrible and hateful and need to educate yourself!!” Drowned out any actual relevant advice sadly.

. Guess what happened to her? Nothing! People calmed her down, the guy she attacked left, and then I saw her again on the market a few days later. In a few days, she may well have a knife instead of just hitting him with her shopping bags.

Her victim could have had her arrested for common assault but presumably he didn't want to.

What do you think should have happened to her?

When i started my mental health nurse training in the early 90s
The long stay wards were being closed downi
I dont disagree that some peoole will never be able to live indpedently
But there were so many people who had been locked up for years that didnt need to have been
But at this point they were institutoonalised and couldnt care for themselves

I think we're finally starting to realise that the telling people to "educate themselves" approach has it's limits. You can't expect the average person on the streets to know how to safely manage someone with a mental illness acting out in a more extreme way.

I think it was brought here and then you continued it. Nobody who isnt obsessed would think that picture looks anything like a man. Anyone who leaves their fucking house would know there are plenty of extremely distressed, very unwell people around at the moment and a lot of them are women.

Just last week at Walthamstow station there was a fairly big incident because a mentally ill woman physically attacked someone at the bus station. Guess what happened to her? Nothing! People calmed her down, the guy she attacked left, and then I saw her again on the market a few days later. In a few days, she may well have a knife instead of just hitting him with her shopping bags.

And I don’t mean locked down units I mean residential units like open… they can leave and work etc but trained staff live there who can monitor spirals and check in and ensure treatment

There needs to be more provision for those with very serious and severe mental illness to receive good, in patient care. I say that as someone whose dh has bipolar and my Mum had schizophrenia and bipolar. My Mum was sectioned on and off throughout my childhood, she was a danger to herself and me several times. As she got older she did become more stable and didn’t need to be sectioned and spent the last 20 years of her life completely symptom free. Having said that, there are many people walking around - you only need to go on a day out and you’ll see evidence of this- who are clearly struggling mentally to the point they shouldn’t be out on their own. It’s actually quite scary. Think of VC, the perpetrator in the 2023 Nottingham stabbings.

There is a huge amount of stigma and misunderstanding about mental illness though- you only have to read all the utterly ignorant comments online surrounding the current ongoing Lindsay Clancy case (Google this if you don’t know about this).

Nobody thinks people with depression and anxiety or bipolar or histrionic PD should all be locked away. A LOT of people with schizoid or psychotic tendencies would be safer in a residential unit though. Abandoning them to a life of difficulty and risk isn’t always safe.

. I said suspicious, not conclusive.
Take the trans arguments to a relevant thread

What body shape do all women have?

No, because the terrible bond wig and body shape look suspicious (I didn't say conclusive) and it's extraordinarily rare that a female commits such a crime and sadly not treated for a man at all.

Well some people should be locked up for the safety of others . Too many people are being killed or injured to ignore this .

Why? Because you can't see her vagina in the picture so you assume it must be a man?

I agree with this,

Most peoole have no undestsnding of severe and enduring mental illness
Yes there are some terrible cases
During the pandemic a women stabbed to death a little girl in a park close to me she was acutely psychotic
These cases are rare though
Its a very fine line between ensuring public safety and not depriving somone of the liberty just in case .

There is no suggestion anywhere reputable that it wasn't but I agree the only picture of the arrest looks very suspicious.

I saw that the sex and gender boards had a thread hinting at this misinformation yesterday.

Why do you say that?

Can you elaborate?

A woman was stabbed to death by a 20 year old suffering psychosis in Dundee last year. His family had begged the mental health services to keep him ‘locked up’ - this is one example of hundreds. Your parents have a point.

I agree with your parents. Care in the community isn’t working and too many innocent people are being injured. In many ways I actually to do think there needs to be the return of the 2026 version of mental asylum’s