Mental Illness and Suicide

Mental illness and suicide.

According to the Experts on such matters: "One in four of us will experience some form of mental illness problem in our lifetimes."

Most of us will go on to make a full recovery and some of us will simply learn how to cope. Leastways, this is the usual sanitised view of the situation. However, it may then come as a surprise to learn that the main cause of premature death amongst those of us stigmatised as being mentally ill is actually suicide.

Whilst it is important to stress that suicide is not a mental illness - 10% to 15% of all suicides occur in the 4-week period following discharge from psychiatric institutions.

Vulnerability & suicide

Mentally ill face execution in the U.S.

Hundreds of mentally ill prisoners are facing execution

in the United States, according to a new report by Amnesty International. About 10% of the 3.400 people on death row are thought to have conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and brain damage, the

human rights campaigners said, Imposing the death penalty on the mentally ill was 'truly disgraceful' the group added.

Metro 31.01.2006

Half of those who die in police custody have mental illness
An "appalling" number of mentally ill people are dying in custody, with half of all the fatalities involving "care in the community" cases, according to the head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

independent.co.uk 17 Jan 06

People with serious mental health problems are being "dumped" on the police - who are ill-equipped to deal with them, warned Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the commission.

Mr Hardwick said the most shocking discovery he had made since the commission was set up a year ago was the number of mentally ill people dying in custody.

"The thing that has really struck and appalled me is that 50 per cent of deaths in police custody have involved people with a mental health problem," he said. "Whatever a police cell is, it's not a place of safety for people with mental illness."

His comments follow a series of high-profile fatalities involving mentally ill people. Thirty-eight people died in police custody in England and Wales in the year to March 2004.

Mental health charities backed Mr Hardwick and said part of the problem was that pressure on hospital resources was resulting in mentally ill people being released into the community inappropriately and without proper supervision.

The case of Roger Sylvester, a man who died after going into a coma while being restrained by six policemen at a psychiatric hospital in Haringey, north London, was one of the most controversial in recent years.

In November last year, a High Court judge quashed an inquest verdict that the 30-year-old had been "unlawfully killed" during the 1999 incident.

In another case, Giles Freeman, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, died on the floor of a cell in Slough police station, after being held down by officers and later suffering a heart attack.

The incident that led to the death of the 37-year-old chef in October 2002 began when he suffered a psychotic episode of paranoid schizophrenia and became violent at his home.

The commission has sent a briefing document to the Government calling for "consistent and adequate emergency NHS services, so that people experiencing acute mental ill-health can receive rapid, professional and high quality support and treatment".

The commission, which investigates and oversees complaints against the police and cases involving deaths in custody, has also raised concern at what it describes as the "variable" quality of mental health training of police officers across the country and called on chief constables and the Home Office to draw up national standards.

"We should be looking upstream to see how mentally ill people get into the system in the first place," he said. "Why are these people ending up in custody and in confrontations with the police?"

Sophie Corlett, the director of policy at Mind, the mental health charity, said: "Mind has been expressing concern for many years over the inappropriate use of violent restraint to control people in extreme mental distress. We would like to see better training and guidance for police, as well as enforced curbs on the use of physical restraint. Police cells are for people who have committed crimes, they are never appropriate for people who are simply ill. They are not and should never be used as 'places of safety'."

Michael Howlett, the director of the Zito Trust, which provides advice and support to victims of mentally ill offenders, said: "The pressure on the health services is so great that they are discharging people inappropriately into the community. Some of the people discharged have then stopped taking their medication."

THE FINAL HOURS OF TWO PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENICS

A paranoid schizophrenic was shot dead by police when he refused to drop a 3ft-long samurai sword an inquest heard last month.

Andrew Kernan, 37, was shot twice in the chest by a marksman after he swung the sword at officers in a busy street. Two attempts to restrain him with CS gas failed. PC Michael Moore fired his weapon in July 2001 after Kernan, a former gardener from Liverpool, threatened to "chop someone's head off" as he headed towards a pub. The inquest jury at Liverpool coroners court returned a verdict that Mr Kernan was lawfully killed.

Giles Freeman, pictured right, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, died in a cell in Slough police station.The chef, 37, was taken into custody after suffering a psychotic episode of paranoid schizophrenia at his home in October 2002. He later tried to escape from his cell and was restrained by several police officers.

An inquest jury returned a verdict that the cause of death was a heart attack "associated with restraint and excessive activity whilst suffering a psychotic episode of paranoid schizophrenia".

Homelessness, Mental Health & Suicide

Homeless people ‘living rough’ have eleven times the frequency of mental ill health than other members of the General Public. In fact the majority of those with mental health problems (88%) were actually ‘ill’ before they became homeless. This being so, it could be argued that homelessness was a direct result of being mentally ill. It is frankly shameful, that one third of evictions by local authorities (forcing people out onto the streets) actually involve mentally ill people.

One of the natural consequences of life on the streets, is that mental health does deteriorate with depressive conditions becoming common. When this is experienced by people who are already suffering the emotional pain of mental illness – general feelings of worthlessness often give rise to suicidal thoughts and feelings. Moreover homeless people are amongst the most vulnerable members of society; and are often the victims of violent crime. Individuals suffering from post traumatic stress are not uncommon, and panic attacks frequent.

Those escaping the streets, who are able to find placements in hostels, have eleven times the frequency of mental health problems than the General Public. It is also reported that less than one third of single homeless people with mental health problems receive any form of treatment. This means that two thirds of the homeless mentally ill receive no treatment for their conditions.

Consequently, rough sleepers are thirty-five times more likely to kill themselves than are members of the General Public. With one third of homeless young people reporting having attempted suicide.

It being a matter of fact that suicide is the main cause of death amongst the homeless population: Homelessness should be acknowledged as both a cause and a consequence of mental ill health. Which, when ignored, all too often results in acts of suicide.

According to the Psychiatric Times: 'Prisons hold three times more people with mental illness than do psychiatric hospitals'.

Woman arrested after seeking help
A health trust has apologised to a woman who was arrested after seeking help for a mental problem.
Emma Hewett went to Blackberry Hill Hospital in Bristol to seek help for manic depression but was later locked in a police cell to keep her safe.

When staff at the hospital decided they could not treat her she was detained under the Mental Health act and taken to Trinity Road police station.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust has apologised.

The trust says that a locum psychiatrist "failed to respond appropriately to a call for help from a junior doctor".

A review into their handling of similar cases is now under way.

Mrs Hewitt said: "My husband called an ambulance and I was taken to Frenchay Hospital's A&E, I was not seen by a doctor or treated at all."

She was then transferred to Blackberry Hill where police were called.

"There was a doctor there all night at Blackberry Hill who could have seen me, treated me and given me some medication. Someone failed to call him down to see me," she added.

A letter from the trust seen by the BBC says: "It is inappropriate for a person to be removed from a ward in order to receive appropriate care, when it was clear that she was disturbed and needing urgent treatment."

The trust has refused to comment on the incident.

bbc.co.uk 12 Jan