UK vows to make mental health ‘priority’ after damning report into knife attacker’s psychiatric care

In June 2023, a knife attacker, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, killed three people in Nottingham.

The British government pledged on Tuesday 13 August to make mental health care a priority. “priority”. This follows the publication of a damning report into the psychiatric care of the perpetrator of a triple murder in June 2023 in Nottingham, which highlights the failings and difficulties of public services in this area.

Faced with growing concerns about treatment times and the quality of care, Health Minister Wes Streeting assured the daily The Sun to want “making mental health a priority”. “We will update the law to fit the times and ensure that care is appropriate, proportionate and compassionate, whilst ensuring public safety.”he said.

On Tuesday, the British commission responsible for evaluating the quality of care pointed out a “series of errors and bad judgments” in the psychiatric monitoring of the perpetrator of the knife attack. According to her, the risk posed by Valdo Calocane, a 32-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, had not “not been well managed” despite numerous warning signs and aggressive behavior.

“Poor decision-making, omissions and errors of judgment meant that this patient with very serious mental health problems did not receive the support and follow-up he needed.”added the author of the report, Chris Dzikiti. The commission points out “systemic issues in the management of mental health problems locally which, without immediate action, will continue to pose risks to patient and public safety”.

His follow-up in a specialized public establishment dedicated to the most serious cases ended in September 2022. A few months later, on June 13, 2023, this man stabbed to death Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, two 19-year-old students who were walking home from a party, then the employee of a school, Ian Coates, 65, who was going to work around 4 a.m.

During his two years of follow-up, Valdo Calocane had been hospitalized four times for “threatening and aggressive behaviors resulting from psychosis”Suffering from paranoid hallucinations, he did not take his medication regularly and had been arrested several times for assaults or trespassing.