For many years now, the mental health branch of the NHS has been under funded, with many closures and poor treatment available.
The following story is even more personally poignant as the individual was known to my family and had been in and out of mental institutions for some
time.
A man slit his own throat with a Stanley knife in a busy branch of Woolworths and bled to death in front of horrified staff.
The shocking scenes happened on Thursday as the store in the centre of Penzance, Cornwall, was packed with shoppers.
Witnesses said the 23-year-old local man had been seen stalking the streets and threatening passers-by. He then went into the shop and made for the
hardware section where the grabbed the knife and began brandishing it at terrified customers.
Staff managed to guide families away from the man and out of the shop. They then tried to reason with him while a 999 call was made.
But the man then turned the knife on himself and slashed at his neck. He died minutes later after cutting a major artery.
A South West Ambulance spokeswoman said: "There was no way this man could have been saved. These types of blades for DIY work might be small but they
are very sharp.
The horrifying incident started just after 3pm when the man walked into the shop.
Terrified staff saw he was carrying the knife and could see he was distressed, and they started to clear people out.
But before anyone could prevent him the man, said to be in his twenties or thirties, started slashing himself with the blade.
source
The individual concerned had recently been sectioned under the mental health act, but instead of receiving treatment, he was put on yet another course
of psychotropic drugs, and after 2 weeks was released into the community.
This was just 3 days before he marched in Woolworths and cut his own throat.
According to family members, an initial diagnosis (over the suicide) has been given to them of "drug induced psychosis" - but toxicology tests are
needed to coinfirm this.
There are currently no reports of what medication he was given when sectioned.
The individual had a long history of mental health problems and had been sectioned in the past on more than one occasion.
This case again raises the issues surrounding
care in the community and it's failures in many
area's.
We now have mentally ill people roaming the streets, often forgotten by the system, battling to live - not just a normal life, but any kind of
life.
Care in the community did much to dispel some of the stigma regarding mental illness, but it has also failed many people, and is seen by some as a
system that discards those it cannot help with a quick fix.
There are many examples of how this system has failed, but this is surely one of the most tragic.
