McGorry: better mental health services will protect community and improve care

But former Australian of the year and mental health expert Patrick McGorry says people with schizophrenia are more likely to be the victims of crime.

Professor Patrick McGorry AO, Executive Director, Orygen. Picture: Orygen

Leading mental health expert and former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry says the best way to reduce risks posed by the small number of potentially dangerous Australians with serious mental health conditions is to raise the quality of care and boost funding.

Professor McGorry, executive director of Orygen, said the public mental health system was severely underfunded in every state and a small subset of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, if untreated, could cause people to become “violent and dangerous to the public”.

He noted most people with schizophrenia were “more likely to be the victims rather than the perpetrators” of crime, but acknowledged those with untreated serious mental health conditions were regularly responsible for deaths. “It is happening,” he said.

Professor McGorry said there had been “at least 12 homicides over a period of a decade” in an area spanning about a quarter of the city of Melbourne.

“The only way to reduce the risk to the public is to fund the mental health system in a substantially increased way with the right service design and culture of care,” he told The Australian. But he stressed he was speaking in general terms and was unsure if an untreated mental health condition was the key factor in Saturday’s horror.

Joel Cauchi, the mass murderer who killed six people in the Bondi Junction stabbing attack, had a history of mental illness and was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. His father on Monday said he had been taken off medication.

Anthony Albanese said the government was “looking at mental health issues” and had “provided some $586m for mental health and suicide prevention” in the last budget.

“This is an issue we need to deal with. You can never do enough in an area like that. There’s no question about that,” the Prime Minister told ABC radio. The government is working with the states and territories to analyse the unmet need for psychosocial supports outside the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Professor McGorry told The Australian the nation was “spending $40bn a year on a relatively small number of people in the NDIS”.

“We are seeing a total of $10bn being spent on the whole of Australia for mental illness, which is a much bigger issue,” he said.

Concern has been expressed in the days following the attack that there should be better information sharing and co-ordination between police and elements of the mental health system. In the ACT, Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana said there was a similar incident to the Bondi attack at the ANU in September, which resulted in a man being charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Police have alleged that a man – who has since pleaded not guilty on grounds of mental impairment – repeatedly stabbed two 20-year-old women with a knife at the university.

Mr Caruana said the man had been on day leave from a mental health facility, but that “no one notified the AFP or ACT policing”.

“We definitely need better communication,” Mr Caruana said. “If someone has presented themselves to a mental health facility for treatment because they are hearing voices … but then voluntarily walks out, there should be some moral obligation for the department or facility to notify police.”

But Professor McGorry warned against arrangements where police were being constantly notified about people with mental health conditions being released into the community.

“That’s not the most efficient way to do it,” he said. “The only way to protect the public more effectively is to raise the quality of mental healthcare, particularly for serious illnesses like schizophrenia.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns announced $18m in funding for an independent coronial inquiry into Saturday’s attack, saying it would examine Cauchi’s interactions with the NSW government and NSW Health.