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| Community care problems admitted | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| Health Minister Rosie Winterton has conceded there are problems in the system for treating the mentally ill. | |
| She was speaking on the eve of a report expected to show that, on average, one person a week dies at the hands of a mentally ill patient. | |
| The report will say almost a third of the killings were by people judged to have been of "low risk". | |
| Ms Winterton said a key problem was that the government could not force discharged patients to take medication. | |
| 'No power' | |
| She told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "What we need to do now is to make sure that the care that we can provide in the community is reflected in modern legislation..." | |
| One current problem was for "the small number of people who are detained in hospital, if they are discharged there are some patients who don't continue to take medication, who don't continue to stay in touch with mental health services", she added. | |
| "At the moment we have no power to be able to say we want people to comply with treatment." | |
| The report, due out on Monday, was compiled by the government's mental health "tsar", Professor Louis Appleby. | The report, due out on Monday, was compiled by the government's mental health "tsar", Professor Louis Appleby. |
| It is expected to reveal that 249 people have been killed by psychiatric patients released into the community over the last five years. | |
| It is also due to show that 29% of patients who committed homicide had seen mental health services in the previous week. | |
| Mental health staff sometimes became "desensitised to the risks they are dealing with", it is expected to say. | Mental health staff sometimes became "desensitised to the risks they are dealing with", it is expected to say. |
| Details of the report, covering England and Wales, were revealed in the Observer and Sunday Times. | |
| Medication 'errors' | Medication 'errors' |
| Researchers, who looked at all the killings and suicides involving mentally ill people over a five-year period, discovered around 52 killings a year were carried out by people who were supposed to be receiving care in the community. | Researchers, who looked at all the killings and suicides involving mentally ill people over a five-year period, discovered around 52 killings a year were carried out by people who were supposed to be receiving care in the community. |
| The report, entitled Avoidable Deaths, will reveal that one in six deaths were blamed on the failure to ensure patients took their medication properly. | The report, entitled Avoidable Deaths, will reveal that one in six deaths were blamed on the failure to ensure patients took their medication properly. |
| Prof Appleby's findings come after an inquiry into the killing, in London's Richmond Park, of retired banker Denis Finnegan by paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett found significant failings in the risk-management process. | Prof Appleby's findings come after an inquiry into the killing, in London's Richmond Park, of retired banker Denis Finnegan by paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett found significant failings in the risk-management process. |