Cuts to investigations of killings by mental health patients ‘put people at risk’

People have been put at risk because the NHS has stopped funding the automatic investigation of all killings by mental health patients, according to psychiatrists and victims’ families. Experts who had looked into every such homicide for 20 years had to stop doing so last year after NHS England stopped paying the £100,000-a-year cost involved, the Guardian has reported.

Previously, for 26 years until last year, researchers from Manchester University had looked into the mental health history and NHS care received by the perpetrator of every such homicide to try to identify patterns and flaws which could be tackled to reduce the risk of similar attacks in the future. Their findings had led to improved care of potentially dangerous mental health patients.

“This is a risky and reckless decision.... It’s outrageous,” said Julian Hendy, the founder of Hundred Families, a charity that helps bereaved families. 

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Source: The Guardian, 17 July 2019