Mental Illness !

Right across Australia, a news story has sent fear creeping into the hearts of those who live with the threat of mental illness intruding into their lifestyle.   It can be people of either gender who suffer mental irrationality - and who are subject to sudden fits of violence.

A fifty-four year old man separated from his wife had initially shown little interest in the son of their union.  He later developed an interest in the boy and started court action to gain access.  He was living rough, sleeping in an unregistered car and had a long history of violence against the boy's mother - and was subject to an arrest warrant for failing to attend court.

He attended a community cricket practice event and spent time coaching his son.  The boy's mother had every reason to think he showed love for his son and granted her son's wish for a little more time with his dad.   Suddenly - without provocation - the father caved in his son's skull with a cricket bat, produced a knife and inflicted fatal wounds.   When the police arrived he attacked them with the knife - and was shot dead.

Such is the outcome that mental illness can produce.   It is impossible to predict what was in that man's mind - and why he took such extreme action - or how it may have been prevented.  Failure to take prescribed anti-psychotic medicine is usually part of the background when tragedy strikes and many will contend that he should have been in custody over those failed court appearances.  Hindsight always has twenty-twenty vision - and there are thousands of people in the community who suffer varying degrees of mental illness.

Psychiatry is not a precise science.    At best, treatment is trial and error and the human mind is the least understood of the organs of the human body.   How it reacts to stress and what effect stimulants and depressives like drugs and alcohol have on situations differ wildly from person to person.   There is no " one size fits all " solution to mental illness.

Unfortunately, a tragedy of this nature will have far reaching community repercussions.    In many cases the courts have granted visiting rights to estranged couples with children and often these visits are filled with acrimony.   Even when there is no background of violence, personal animosity can lead to refused access, manufactured claims of " incidents " - and the rage factor that is usually the root cause of future violence.  We can expect an upsurge of access problems to arise from this brutal killing.
Australia is still digesting the sentencing of a man who threw his fiancee from a high rise balcony in a fit of rage - and many will contend that this was a form of mental illness.    We tend to be suspicious of the homeless of our society because they do not conform to normal standards - and we crave uniformity.  We shun what we do not understand - and the stigma of mental illness is easily bestowed on anyone who does not fit within normal parameters.

Sadly, there are many people in our society who have very good reason to fear an ex partner or a close relative who is consumed with a vindictive hate and has threatened violence.  Unfortunately there are few avenues of relief open to such people.    The police can only act once a crime has been committed and the mental health people are subjected to legislative limits - and are short of treatment facilities.

Fortunately, mental illness that ends in tragedy is fairly rare, but when it does happen it is so extreme that it grabs the headlines.  It seems that becoming a victim is just one of the happenances that fate chooses to distribute at random - and it's outcome is decided by sheer luck !