Appeal over mystery 'piano man'!

[Gwenick]

here

How strange - and ever sadder is apparently the secure mental health unit he's now held in doesn't have a piano - yet it seems to be his only 'way' to of communicating!

true, however i doubt the piano in the chapel that he was given access to was a grand - an upright surely?

nope sorry a digital piano is still no substitue for a grand piano! A cheap upright might have been ok - but for some electric can never be a subsititue for acoustic.

STOP ARGUING
hehehe

as i said, i'd be surprised if a psychiatric unit had a grand piano on its premises. Ropy upright I'm sure.

even more shocked just read this

"Staff at the psychiatric unit in Dartford said the man had been denied access to the piano in an effort to get him to speak"

Surely that's not a way to get some to be more willing to talk??? To me it's like trying to get a criminal suspect to talk by denying him food or drink...............

how weird

I too am concerned to read that Gwen!

What if Jimjams is right and this man turns out to be a person who has autisim and is possibly non-verbal. It doesn't bear thinking about

I think this also just serves to heighten the anxiety that the parents of autistic children have about how their children might be treated by others as adult. The fact that this treatment is being meted out by people who ought to know better is even more frightening

yep I'm terrified to die soapbox. He may not be autistic - but if its true that the NAS have sent a team to assess him following the news reports then it suggests that they haven't even considered it. Just what do they teach these people, labels cut ot of clothes, very anxious, terrified of people, splinter skills, attachment to a strange object (manuscript), mono-chanelling, playing snippets of pieces for 4 hours hmmmm couldnt get more text book? Surely someone should have investigated that avenue sometime in the previous 6 weeks.

yep I am very scared of dying if this is the best state care can come up with.

here's the link to the NAS response . Which to me suggests that autism hasn't even been considered before now- terrifying.

Jimjams

"The only other way is if we get expert people working with him who are able to use his music and get his identity."

Quote on the updated news story on the BBC..........duh well I would have thought that would have been a sensible option as soon as they realised he was more at ease with his music.........

It's weird that he hasn't been recognised anyway though....

No idea whether he is autistic or not- just seems strange that no-one appears to have thought about it.

Jimjams - in our local news (I am in Kent adn so is he) - they say he has been identified as French (by someone) and the French authorities are being contacted.

He has apparently been identified by a mime artist (eastern european?? Foreign anyway!) as being a street performer from Nice.

Soupy - here they said the person who identified him is Polish but the man (who was named as Stéphane xxxx) was French.

I am sure it has to be confirmed.

It all sounds kind of unlikely though doesn't it?!

I think they said on XFM that he was "a street performer he (ie the mime artist) had seen in Nice". Rather than him being from Nice IYSWIM. I knew Eastern European came into it somewhere though.

Latest here and here

All very odd.

I know CNN is american- but a French man called Steven? Doesn't sound very french!

probably Stefan

latest very strange that there's nothing more concrete after international publicity. Poor man- this story has really moved me for some reason.

Message withdrawn

you think he's an alien lisalisa??!!

Message withdrawn

He doesn't look anything LIKE Martin Sturfalt at the report in the Scotsman! Poor old Martin is very plain in comparison.
Really hope they find this man's family or friends very soon.