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Realism and care required when discussing violence in mental health
26 February 2010
Commenting on the BBC’s “Why did you kill my dad?” programme aired on Monday 1st March, Steve Shrubb, director of the Mental Health Network which represents the majority of NHS mental health organisations, said:
"The death of Phillip Hendy as set out in this programme was a terrible tragedy for all involved.
In drawing wider conclusions from these cases, we have to be clear about how rare this type of violence is and that most victims are family members. The latest figures show there were 662 homicides in England and Wales, of which ten were cases that involved strangers being attacked by people who had been in contact with mental health services in the previous 12 months
We must also be careful about making sure we do not label all those people with personality disorders and severe mental illness as violent on the basis of the very small number of such people who commit violent crimes against others.
Learning from what went wrong when these tragic incidents happen should be a fundamental part of the work of all the relevant services and agencies involved. It is only through working together that services can minimise the risks involved with such seriously ill people."
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