M ental I llness C oncerns A ll	S. is known to suffer from manic-depressive illness, sometimes, in phases, floridly so, with severe and emphatic misbeliefs which he is led to act upon. He has had a mixed emotional childhood, from a father who was heavy handed with discipline - even violently so, to a period of longstay in England with cousins. a very different family setting, affectionate and companionate. His father withdrew him and his sister after disagreement with the cousins' family. S.' mother had committed suicide allegedly worried about her husband who was reacting to some point of difficulty on his return to India, from England. Her sister had also killed herself. It is likely a family propensity to affective illness was there. The father never talked about these matters with the children When they were all grown up his sister and cousins found their own way forward, S less so, less and less supported and in contact in the extended family network, because they were all steady in work and S. was not. The final incident and tragedy was presaged by clear signs of illness and threats against the father, which relatives conveyed to the police in 999 calls. S. was on Probation at the time after an assault by him at work when clearly ill at the time, but not so floridly so, the illness not recognised, and so, a police matter. Because the extended family were never told how to access community mental health services, they did what they thought best and reported his beahviour to the police. No intervention was made. No one had kept S sufficiently 'on their book' so that other people would know who was the lead contact in the local NHS mental health services, to refer back to and how to do that. There had been no continuity in aftercare arrangements, and no clarity of 'gatekeeping'. In particular ,the extended relatives, who were always there for S, were never recognised and appreciated in their important role, and were never informed as to how they might get at specialist secondary mental health community service help for S. especially necessary as as S. was known to go quickly into mania and unreality at some stage during his illness phases. S. killed his father in circumstances of active delusional turmoil. A poor show There are two victims here. Again and again, there is information in the community, which the community cannot find a way into professional acceptance and quick professional ownership and response .back to Inquiry List back to Home page.   back to Inquiry Link page       E-mail reaction is welcome mica@didgy.freeserve.co.uk