Independent inquiry into the care and treatment of Ismail Dogan

Created: 2009-05-05 19:23:27

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, today commented on the independent inquiry into the care and treatment of Ismail Dogan, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and who killed one person and stabbed five others in north London in June 2004:

"This report highlights a familiar litany of serial blunders, mismanagement and miscommunication. Yet again, the warnings and pleas of family members went unheeded, with fatal consequences. SANE has campaigned for years over the way mental health services are delivered under the care in the community policy, which fails to meet the needs of a significant number of people with severe and complex mental illness.

"Following so soon after the report into the case of Daniel Gonzalez, who killed four people only two months before the attacks by Ismail Dogan, it begs the question: is care in the community working? Can all patients be safely treated by a ‘jigsaw’ of mental health teams which fail to communicate with each other, respond to crises, or assess and act upon the risk that some individuals may pose to themselves or others?

"SANE calls for a ‘red alert’ scheme when the state of mind of someone suffering from severe mental illness deteriorates, for example, when they fail to take medication or keep appointments, so that police and health services can respond quickly to the warnings of families and others to prevent tragic and unnecessary loss of life."

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