Killers not always threat— doctor

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 16

Killers not always threat— doctor

PA Auckland The fact people have killed does not necessarily mean they are a threat to the public, the Health Department’s director of mental health, Dr Basil James, has said. “The likelihood of most people committing a second murder is exquisitely small,” he said. He was commenting on public concern over the escapes from Oakley Hospital of persons who have either been convicted of murder, or found unfit to plead to a murder charge. “Most murders occur in families, and most are the result of a prolonged and intense personal relationship which has become disharmonious. People should not have the fantasy in their heads that a person who commits murder is likely to attack anonymous people in the street. That is a wrong conception,” said Dr James. Oakley staff estimated that only three patients in the locked ward, M 3, could be a threat to the public, he said. “This does not mean they should be in maximum

security at Lake Alice. The staff have taken into account their likelihood of making a determined bid to escape.” Dr James said people who did represent a public threat were those who had committed apparently motiveless, serious crimes. “They are people who have, for example, killed someone who was a stranger to them.” He said that one of the biggest tragedies with people who killed when they were mentally ill was that the sickness could often be quickly and effectively treated. “They can be better in only a matter of weeks, and it is a terrible tragedy that they haven’t been seen earlier.” Locked wards in psychiatric hospitals were there as much to protect the patients as the public, he said. “It gives the patient a sense of security and containment and limits the environment within which he can be treated.” Dr James discussed recent abscondings from Oakley with the Minister of Health, Mr Malcolm, repre-

sentatives of the police, hospital staff, Auckland Hospital Board officers and the board’s chairman, Dr Frank Rutter, on Wednesday. Mr Malcolm said after the meeting there had been some failure in communication between the hospital and police during recent patient absences. He said the response the police had made was not always appropriate in terms of information he had received on the particular patient.

Mr Malcolm said the police had acted on information that was not entirely accurate and in future better quality, up-to-date details on a patient would be passed on by the hospital.

These details would include a report on a patient’s state of mind and the threat he would pose to the public. Auckland’s police chief, Assistant Commissioner K. G. Sykes, said yesterday the tighter lines of communication would certainly help. He said the police had in the past reacted mainly on the patient’s past record, sometimes two or three years out of date.