December 16, 2014
by Anne Miller
There’s been a lot of chatter following the tragic events in Sydney … from the totally predictable and racist ravings of such groups as the Australian Defence League to more reasoned commentary on bail laws.
But there’s one thing that I haven’t seen discussed at all: the identification and treatment of individuals who may well be exhibiting signs of untreated mental illness, but who deny that they have a problem and thus resist treatment.
Speak to any police officer, any politician, any reporter, and I bet they could name someone without pausing whom they believe has a mental health issue which is not being addressed.
I include here the people that tie up police resources over and over again, the repeated domestic violence / victim scenarios that are replayed almost every weekend. And perhaps less obviously, the people who write daily letters or emails, make threats, who seem obsessed about one issue or one person, make repeated delusional or paranoid claims …
Most of these people are (sadly) a risk to themselves or their immediate family only.
But I believe there are a very few, very dangerous individuals who could also be a danger to the wider public.
The Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis may simply have been a very evil, deluded Islamist fanatic.
However, he may also have been a very ill – and perhaps treatable – individual.
We will probably never know.
When I read commentaries today of his life – about his escape under questionable circumstances from Iran, his conversion from Shia to Sunni Islam, his self-titling, his rabid and offensive letter writing campaigns, his repetitive court challenges, his obsession with publicity, the very public protests – I can see nowhere where anyone said “hang on, this guy needs help. Instead of listening to him or just doing the story, how about we get him some help?”.
And that’s because they can’t.
Even when Monis faced more serious charges – the sex allegations and the accessory to murder charges – was there any medical intervention by the courts? I doubt it.
Over the years, I have spent a lot of time sitting in Magistrates Courts watching a parade of humanity appear on minor and not-so-minor charges.
Some are obviously not very well, even to my untrained eyes. But very rarely have I seen a magistrate remand a person in custody so that they can have a mental health check.
And even more rare is the occasion when a person is considered unfit to plead.
The “system” these days seems to actively discourage outsiders from labelling anyone as mentally unwell. Frankly, it doesn’t know what to do with them.
There is support available – although not enough, especially in rural and regional areas – for people who can self-identify that they need help.
But there seems to be few compulsory mental health interventions.
I am not a psychiatrist, but I have no doubt that Man Haron Monis was insane.
It’s not a nice word. It’s a word that’s almost been banned by political correctness now that we have done away with “lunatic asylums”.
But if someone, somewhere during the past 13 years had thought to order Man Haron Monis to receive assessment and treatment – rather than just shaking their heads in disbelief at his odd and eccentric ravings – perhaps there would be three more people alive and well in Sydney today.
