Serious questions have been raised about the mental health treatment of a mother who laid down before a speeding train cradling her toddler son, killing them both.
Donna Oettinger, 41, was denied urgent psychiatric help despite attempting suicide over "crippling" anxiety three months before she died at Riddlesdown station with three-year-old Zaki in her arms, an inquest heard today.A tragedy that could have been avoided? Well, the psychiatrist said he didn't believe she'd harm her child, although she showed clear signs of wanting to do away with herself...
In the 10 months before her death, she twice held a knife to her own neck, had to be physically restrained from throwing herself under a train at East Croydon, and overdosed on prescription anti-depressants.You might think, might you not, that a system which steps in and removes children simply because daddy thinks the occasional smack is a part of growing up would do so if mummy was intent of throwing herself in front of an express train.
But it seems you'd be wrong.
Of course not, because the basic credo that runs right to the core of all such government bodies is that men are fundamentally evil, and women are fundamentally good. Therefore things must be done to prevent evil men doing the evil things the authorities KNOW they will do given even the tiniest opportunity, whereas women are to be given every benefit of the doubt, because their fundamental goodness is not in question.
ReplyDeleteAnd if by any chance a woman does do something wrong it isn't their fault, there will be some outside force (usually attributed to a man) that made her do it, and she is not to be blamed at all.
One must also remember that government services employ predominantly women, and they gain the benefit of the above rules too, so if they f*ck up in the job, they aren't to be blamed either. Pressure of work, stress, mental health problems themselves, all will be used to take the responsibility for a womans own actions off her shoulders.
That's experts for you Julia! Until such people are made responsible for the consequences of their decisions are made responsible such tragedies will continue. Trouble is, such accountability would lead to horrendous risk aversion based abuse and miscarriages of justice. Difficult line to tread. That said if it's all about resources, then that's disgusting.
ReplyDelete"One must also remember that government services employ predominantly women..."
ReplyDeleteThus giving the lie to the notion that a world run by women would be so much better than one run by men...
" That said if it's all about resources, then that's disgusting."
It's rarely, if ever, about resources, when you dig deep into the report. It's almost always ideology or poor management.