Lessons not learnt on potential killers
DEAR Editor, It is a depressing but incontrovertible fact that the family of Christina Edkins are right in saying that little has changed since the young girl’s tragic and avoidable death by a paranoid schizophrenic.
Before the introduction of the disastrous so-called care in the community programme, Phillip Simelane, with his history of serious mental illness and repeated acts of violence, would have been in a long-stay psychiatric hospital, like the now demolished Rubery Hill Hospital, or a secure unit where he would have presented no danger to anyone.
Now these havens no longer exist and people with severe mental health issues, particularly those with a history of violence who drift from one address to another, sometimes with spells in prison, and who fail to take their medication to keep their condition under control, disappear off the radar and consequently pose a serious threat to the community.
Time and time again horrific incidents have occurred across the UK, following the introduction of the care in community policy, and every time we are subjected to the same mantra of ‘lessons to be learned’ and a host of recommendations designed to prevent or minimise such attacks occurring in the future.
It is no wonder that the heartbroken parents of Christina Edkins are so angry and disillusioned with the report into her death, they must have been disgusted and infuriated with the report’s cop-out comment that their daughter’s tragic death could not have been predicted.
At the very minimum there has to be clearly defined responsibility and accountability at every stage in the treatment of someone with a serious mental illness, which will include the consultant psychiatrist, community psychiatric nurse, GP and police. Peter Henrick, Northfield,
Birmingham