An AMPH having to call20, 30, even 38 doctors just to secure the 2 Dr's necessary to carry out a Mental Health Act assessment. How is this remotely acceptable? As a mum to a son with schizophrenia, I’ve always been told one of the doctors “should” know him or have had previous contact with him. Yet this thread suggests AMHPs are struggling to find anyone willing to attend. We live rurally and my son has had two assessments at home. Reading in this thread that doctors decline because a few miles is “too far” makes me furious. Behind those phone calls are seriously unwell people and desperate families trying to keep everyone safe. A family’s postcode should never determine whether help arrives. Why am I not surprised? Because families already know how much of this broken system depends on somebody fighting relentlessly to make it act.

Three children have died. Their mother was profoundly mentally unwell. The judge said she would not have done this had she been well. Yet some of you still have the breathtaking arrogance to call her a “fraud”. Your certainty is not evidence. Your outrage does not make you more qualified than the psychiatrists who assessed her. Surely this tragedy should force you to confront how devastatingly psychosis can destroy someone’s connection with reality. Unless you have cared for someone in severe psychosis, trust me: you have absolutely no idea what that means. No idea at all. Yet you feel entitled to pass judgment as though you know everything. This woman was let down by the very system that should have protected her and her children. Failings in her care were acknowledged in court. There were opportunities to intervene. That is where the demand for accountability should be deafening. I am beyond angry. Three children deserved protection. Their mother needed effective care. A system meant to prevent tragedies like this must answer for the opportunities it missed. Those children deserve to be remembered with love. Their deaths should drive demands for answers and better care. Demonising severe mental illness will save nobody.

Calling mental illness a “well-known escape from prison” on the strength of anecdotes and staffroom conversations is prejudice, not evidence. “Mad or bad” is a disgraceful way to speak about patients, whoever says it. As the mum of a son with schizophrenia, I see families begging for assessments, hospital admission and treatment while their desperately unwell loved ones deteriorate. The suggestion that psychiatric admission is some easy option bears no resemblance to that experience. You can demand public protection and accountability without portraying seriously ill people as frauds. Comments like yours deepen the stigma families like mine fight every single day. SHAME ON YOU

In our online support group for families caring for someone with schizophrenia or psychosis, we hear accounts like this every day. Seriously unwell loved ones, families warning of risks to themselves or others, shouting from the rooftops for help—and still no timely assessment or hospital admission. Families are holding up a mental health system that repeatedly fails to listen. We are parents and carers, desperately trying to keep everyone safe, while fighting for medical care our loved ones should already be receiving. Then, when tragedy happens, people living with schizophrenia face yet more stigma, while families recognise the same desperate warnings they have been raising for years. As a mum to a son with schizophrenia, I am sick and tired of it. Our loved ones deserve timely treatment and dignity. Families deserve to be heard. Everyone deserves a system that acts before lives are destroyed.

Kay is right to distinguish between Section 37/41 orders and overall homicide figures. They measure different things. For context, NCISH’s 2026 report estimates that 11% of homicide perpetrators had contact with mental health services in the preceding year, with an average of 58 victims annually across England, Wales and Scotland during 2013–2023. These figures cover different diagnoses and do not mean every killing was caused by someone with a schizophrenia diagnosis A tribunal review does not mean release is approaching. The Court of Appeal concluded that Calocane would very likely remain in a secure hospital for life. Accurate context does not minimise victims. Kay’s factual distinction deserves an answer, not an accusation.

PSYCHOSIS IS A MEDICAL CONDITION. ITS A BRAIN DISORDER #psychosis It is a complete loss of contact with reality caused by the brain not processing information accurately, JUST AS A HEART ATTACK AFFECTS THE HEARTS ABILTY TO FUNCTION. It is NOT a character flaw, bad behavior, or moral failure. IT INCLUDES: ●Hallucinations ● Delusions ● Paranoia •fixed beliefs ●Disorganized thinking ●Lack of insight (anosognosia) A person in psychosis CANNOT simply choose to get help. Failing to treat is not neutral. It’s neglect. It doesn’t go away. Untreated psychosis doesn’t disappear on its own. It escalates. It isn’t a failure of will. When someone is psychotic, their brain is not processing reality accurately. It is AN ILLNESS Failure to treat severe mental illness is not benign. It is dangerous. When medical systems fail, people are pushed into crisis, not recovery. Hospitals often discharge people without stabilization. Families are told to “wait until something bad happens.” A lack of beds, continuity of care, and accountability leads to repeated crises. This is how neglect becomes punishment. @andyburnham @BBCNews @SkyNews #schizophrenia

linkedin.com/posts/raf-hamai… sign this petition calling on Parliament to stop patients in forensic mental health hospitals from losing benefits. Whether the public finds it comfortable or not, these patients were profoundly unwell when their offences were committed. That does not erase the harm caused or the suffering of victims and their families. I understand why some bereaved families want punishment rather than rehabilitation. That can come from a place of profound grief. But I do not believe we will achieve positive change by undermining treatment and recovery. Psychosis means a complete break from reality. As a mum to a son with schizophrenia, I have witnessed how someone can be seriously unwell without recognising it. Please look up anosognosia—a lack of awareness of illness that can persist even while receiving treatment. Had my son never developed psychosis, I would not have understood how it truly works, or how desperately families struggle within a failing mental health system. Section 17 leave is a crucial part of rehabilitation: shopping, travelling, managing money and rebuilding independence in preparation for discharge. What happens when patients cannot afford those activities? Will hospitals have to cover the costs? Will rehabilitation be restricted? Removing benefits risks shifting costs onto already stretched NHS budgets. We need effective treatment, properly funded rehabilitation and safer communities. Making patients poorer risks working against all three. Before celebrating the savings, we should ask: what will this policy actually cost? Please read, sign and share. 👇

We should all be concentrating on improving mental health care for people with schizophrenia. It’s a shame we cannot come together to do that. Here is a quote from a member of POPS UK, our support group for people and families caring for someone with psychosis or schizophrenia: “I was told by the mental health helpline, unless he harms himself or others we can’t intervene. So the system is responsible for what happened to Valdo’s victims.” This is what families caring for someone in psychosis are up against daily, Families are pleading for help before someone gets hurt. Where is the determination to build a system that intervenes before tragedy happens?

I would argue that the majority of "suspicious" behaviours are shown by neurotypicals

I’m a mum whose son is very intelligent and gentle, and also has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The sheer cruelty in comments left on posts about this heartbreaking incident has reduced me and a whole community to tears. Shame on every single person who has left a vile comment about this awful incident. A young man has died. His family could read your words. Have some basic human decency. Psychosis means a complete break from reality. Unless you’ve cared for someone through that crisis, you cannot understand the trauma that comes with that..its horrific. Watching your child suffer, day after day, is beyond painful. Then having to witness society ridicule and dehumanise people with serious mental illness is sickening. Schizophrenia can affect someone you love. Remember that before you leave your next cruel comment.