Friday 11 December 2020

If Only There Really Was A Net, Judge...

A man who threw his infant son into a river “slipped through the net” of mental health services, a judge has said.

...it's more like, well, nothing

The psychiatrist Dr John Crosby, his treating clinician at Ashworth secure hospital (and the same guy giving evidence on behalf of another murderous psychotic in the news), said Bennett-Eko, who had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, should “never have been discharged” from community mental health care services in the years before his son’s death.
Thanks for that, Dr Hindsight. Why was he then?
Bennett-Eko, who was too unwell to appear at the trial or the sentencing, was previously diagnosed with psychosis related to cannabis and sectioned at the age of 15 but discharged into the care of his GP in 2017, the court was told.

Hard enough to get in to see the GP if you're sane... 

Peter Wright QC, defending, added that Bennett-Eko had tried to seek support for his mental health problems six times in the weeks leading up to his son’s death.
The judge said: “You expressly asked to be sectioned. The notes of one of those visits positively states ‘no emergency, no urgency’ and you were again simply referred back to your GP.”

There's no 'net' at all, is there? 

2 comments:

Just Trevor said...

I have a loved one with a debilitating mental health condition who has been effectively abandoned. I raised hell and secured the promise of an appointment with the psychiatrist, which turned out to be a three-minute phone'consultation' and a referral to 'talking therapy'. This envy-of-the-world treatment culminated with the provision of a self-service website. Couldn't this be automated at little or no cost? Those doctors who have been lounging at home for nine months are screeching their superfluity from the rooftops. We should listen to them.

JuliaM said...

"...which turned out to be a three-minute phone'consultation' and a referral to 'talking therapy'. "

We clapped for this 'service'. Well, I didn't.