Date: 7 November 2011

A report from the Centre for Social Justice has suggested that many mental health patients have been let down for decades as a result of inpatient wards closing down without sufficient accompanying increase in local care.

It has been suggested that the £6 billion a year cost of dealing with mental health is the single biggest burden on the NHS. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith says the closure of asylums has meant that many needs currently go ‘unmet’.

Sharon Allison, a medical injury lawyer at Ashton KCJ says: “Mental health care is a huge concern at present and really does need a radical review. I have dealt with numerous cases of failings in community mental health care where the patient has not been given the imperative support that they need and, in some cases, this has led to the unimaginable tragedy of the individual taking their own life. Sadly it is not uncommon to read terrible stories of ‘care in the community’ mental health patients who have taken someone else’s life, such as the case of Lin and Megan Russell who were battered to death with a hammer by Michael Stone in 1996; he had been refused a psychiatric bed just days before the attack.”

“I have seen first hand how mental health issues impact on the families left behind and one only hopes that, by raising the profile of these issues, an essential review of services will take place urgently and potentially save lives in the future”.

If you wish to discuss a mental health claim or other medical related injury, please contact Sharon Allison on 01842 752401 who will be happy to assist.