FOLLOWING the brutal killing of Miss Patricia Anne Durrant by John Blair Hamilton, someone labelled by psychiatry as a “paranoid schizophrenic” (Man’s fear of demons led to brutal killing,Western Telegraph, November 5) it is pertinent to state that a person with “schizophrenia” is 100 times more likely to commit suicide than to commit an act of homicide (Report of the Confidential Inquiry into Homicides and Suicides by Mentally Ill People, Royal College of Psychiatrists,1996).
In terms of homicide, the general public is far more at risk from young men under the influence of alcohol than from people with a mental health problem (Audit Commission,Finding A Place: A Review of Mental Health Services for Adults, HMSO, 1994).
The cited figures are old but relevant and pertinent to 2014.
Medication and help, professional or otherwise, are available for people labelled by psychiatry as “schizophrenic”.
Certain people can and do recover from “schizophrenia”.
The following websites may be of help and relevance to people labelled by psychiatry as “schizophrenic”, their families, their friends and theiracquaintances: www.
hearingvoicescymru.org, www.intervoiceonline.org and www.workingtorecovery.
co.uk .
HYWEL DAVIES Chairman,
Hearing Voices Network Cymru
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