Why did you kill my dad? My own response

I am sad because this was just real people, telling real stories. These murders happened and the documentary gave us real insight into just how devastating these events were. The documentary showed the cases through the eyes of the victims’ families and friends. There is another story here too, the suffering and the battles of the families and friends of the people who committed the killings. I am sure that their stories would make me have very similar emotions.

I am sick and frustrated because I have seen the system in action for many years as a sister of someone who suffers from a severe mental illness. All of the things raised are the same things that service users, carers and families raise constantly and consistently every day. They are the same things that are raised in every review, consultation process, complaint that I have ever been involved in.

I am worried because, as Dolly Sen’s message in her blog states, I too hope that viewers will hear the film's message: that recommendations must be implemented; that families must be listened to and that mental health services must improve. I hope that viewers do not just come away with the message that people with mental illness are dangerous.  I hope that they understand the harrowing cases represented in the documentary only represent the small number of cases. I hope that viewers understand that actually there about a million people in the UK with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and personality disorder and that they are law abiding citizens.

I am angry because the fundamentals of the services available to people with mental illness, despite all of these lessons, just doesn’t change. I would like to add that I believe that the day-to-day stories behind many of the people with a serious mental illness, who never have and never will hurt anyone, and their families and friends would be as emotional, as full of hopelessness, as frustrating, as helpless and as full of regret. That the stories from these people and from their families and friends would spell out the same messages and lessons that need to be learnt. Mental Health services must not only improve in my opinion, but must change radically and start taking responsibility.

These issues just need to be sorted out not just as a way of trying to prevent this violence, but so that the majority of us with experience of being involved with mental health services either directly or indirectly can see our loved one supported properly by services. So that we can get back to the business of being sisters, mothers, husbands, wives, children.