The figures we reported this week on homicides by patients treated by the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) are shocking, but need a lot of caveats and qualifications.
First, we don’t yet have the context for these numbers. How many patients or former patients at other mental health trusts in London and England have also killed people? SLaM could be an outlier, or killings could be happening at a similar rate to other trusts.
Second, SLaM treats tens of thousands of people across four boroughs – Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham and Croydon. All of these boroughs have high levels of crime, deprivation and drug and alcohol abuse. SLaM argues that all of these may have played roles in at least some of the killings.
Third, the courts found that mental health was a factor in around fifteen of the killings, not all fifty. But this caveat itself has to be caveated – Julian Hendy of the Hundred Families charity, whose investigation revealed these figures, argued that this doesn’t mean psychiatric disorders should be completely discounted in these killings.
Finally, it may be a capacity and funding issue with SLaM – inspectors reported in 2018 how more than 30 patients were sleeping in waiting rooms waiting for a bed on a ward.
Whatever the case, we also need to know that more is being done to keep our elderly and vulnerable people safe, and to ensure that psychiatric patients are getting the best care they possibly can.
These qualifications do not detract from the senseless horror of the stories of the two victims we have reported on in the past two weeks. We still do not have proper answers for either.
Why was the violent and threatening Alexander Rawson deemed suitable by SLaM and others to be living in a care home for eldlerly dementia patients? Why was he put in the room next door to Eileen Dean in the care home and allowed to wander around unsupervised? And, in our story last week, why was the frail 75-year-old Maureen Watkins not told about her son’s violent behaviour on the ward before he was released back into her care, and before he killed her?
Exclusive: investigation reveals at least 50 killings by SLaM patients
Georgie Hempshaw, Eileen’s daughter, described not knowing more about the circumstances of her mother’s killing as like having an open wound. She and her family need to know more. It is disappointing that the trust refused to comment on her tragic death.
We shall see what light, if any, their upcoming report will throw on the events that led to Eileen’s death.