This is shocking

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This man was clearly very very unwell and it seems wasn't willing to engage with the mental health team. It's scary that he was walking around in such a bad state of mind.

apple.news/AyxJ3PZXwRUKhVXIW0qwloA

A question though - why is it people with schizophrenia or psychosis always think it's something to do with the goverment/spys/god ?

💐@Firefly1987
It's so hard- I honestly think in the family's shoes I would be saying the same thing. Hopefully its some comfort that they said it's likely he will remain where he goes. The mental health system has failed though.

@OrangeSquareBlob thank you. Yes it must be so tough for them, they don't want to see a programme about the murderer, it's understandable. But the family are sharing his medical records and giving an explanation-I know the families of those that were killed may not see it that way or want to hear from them but I feel it's important for us to know what went wrong.

I don't see how he will ever be let out now, it's just so terrible it had to escalate to something like this for someone to get the long-term treatment they need. Everything these days seems so short-term with sections only lasting a month or two. It's not long enough to get the illness under control.

The thing is with this illness things can be fine for months and then in a short time escalate, and the patient doesn't understand that they need help and may put on an act to services who they may be suspicious of. I think a really good thing would be not just psychiatrists but therapists available long term for patients to build a bond with and can talk to when things start to slip

In 1983 when Margaret Thatcher’s shitty government introduced ‘care’ in the community in order to save money (although they reframed this fact at the time), they took the support, monitoring and treatment of very unwell patients away from residential settings and out onto the street.

It is incredibly difficult for people with psychotic illnesses and their families to manage without appropriate support. The current system routinely fails and the NHS is rarely held accountable. Valdo Calocane’s case is a tragedy for everyone involved and I’ll bet mental health failings are behind the recent Southport and Leicester Square incidents.

DS26 was sectioned 5 years ago after a severe psychotic episode. I was told he was very unwell and that he would definitely be put on an S3. Four days later he was discharged. I had serious concerns about his mental state and repeatedly phoned them to re-admit but they refused saying he was fit for discharge. He was very good at masking symptoms and told me he had lied at the discharge meeting with a psychiatrist.

Two weeks later he was arrested on an explosives charge and sent to prison. He was released in 2020. He had received no diagnosis or treatment after 18 months in prison because he presented with no challenging behaviour.

He continued to be well until after a serious motorbike accident last November he started displaying signs of depression and 2 months ago during another psychotic episode chased someone with a knife in broad daylight through crowded streets claiming he was pursuing the devil. He is now on an attempted murder charge. There was no alcohol or drugs involved.

My son’s case is active so I am unable to give specific details but it is probably only now that he will be diagnosed and treated. He is a bright and lovely man whose future is now in tatters.

The mental health service in the UK is not fit for purpose. As a result families will continue to suffer and public safety will be continue to be compromised.

Bring back residential psychiatric hospitals.

Its really difficult to get a balance, I started my mental health nurse training in 1993 at the very tail end of of the big mental health hospitals being shut down ,there were patients who had been in hospital for 40/ 50 years who should never have been kept in hospital for so long and were completely incapable of caring for themselves as they were so institutionalised
I also remember aa a young newly qualified nurse, some Consultant Psychiatrists ,keeping patients detained for far to long on acute wards ,
Nowadays it's swung far ,to far in the other direction and people who really need to be in hospital not getting the treatment they need.

It seems so fucked yo and backwards that someone who is very unwell will be discharged because they are not cooperating? Surely that's one of the main signs of the illness, that they lack the insight to see they are unwell and won't want help?

Don't generalise. These conditions manifest in many ways, including but not exclusively, paranoia about agencies of state.
Others believe they are Jesus, or that electricity is killing them
So, please do not assume everyone is same

I think this is really key, there are ways to risk assess people with schizophrenia but this doesn't seem to be happening at the moment (or if it is, there is no relationship between what the risk assessment finds and the treatment plan). For the reasons you have stated, your DB is low risk, to himself and others. Valdo Colocane was high risk but that doesn't seem to have resulted in anything happening different to what is available to your brother. It's like it's just treated as a single condition when as you say it is a huge spectrum, and social support factors play a massive role.

It's disappointing this didn't come out sooner as some of the media and public reaction when he was given a hospital order rather than a murder conviction showed a real lack of understanding of what schizophrenia is.

@FinalInstructionstotheAudience Sorry I don't mean to generalise, I am open to learn though as I said I do find it interesting. I like to think when I was younger if I was pushed enough to do something I'd have gone into mental health nursing

spot on, they closed all these types of places down and built houses on them,
Where are those people now that they have been closed down.
How would they feel if they or their family were attacked.

They should be reopened now. Nobody knows whose walking around now mentally ill and could stab you?
wheres our protection?

I think we definitely need a more holistic (and much more expensive probably) approach to all mental health issues right across the spectrum.

People need to be kept safe and well. I’m sure we could learn from successful systems in other countries such as Norway. There also needs to be a more positive discourse around mental health - there’s so much doom, gloom and stigma around it still.

Thank you for your interesting post :)

Joined up work. If someone is a risk and won't engage with health, they need PCSOs to engage with them.

An example is my DB was a victim of cuckooing where dealers moved into his flat. The local PCSO befriended him, I passed on info too. In the end we got rid of them.