Pure Madness: How Fear Drives The Mental Health System

By: Jeremy Laurance

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Synopsis: Public alarm at random attacks by mentally ill people is at an all-time high. The brutal killing of Jill Dando, the TV personality, and the assault on George Harrison, the former Beatle, are among the cases which have undermined confidence in the mental health service. Community care is widely seen as a failed policy that has left too many people walking the streets, posing a risk to themselves and a threat to others. The Government has responded with a programme of change billed as the biggest reform in forty years, but will it achieve the ‘safe, sound, supportive’ service that is promised? For Pure Madness, Jeremy Laurance travelled across the country observing the care provided to mentally ill people in Britain today. Based on interviews, visits and case histories, the book reveals a service driven by fear in which risk reduction through containment – by physical or chemical means – is the priority. He finds that growing dissatisfaction with the medically dominated service is fuelling demands from mentally ill people for less coercion and more involvement in care. But the Government has responded with an authoritarian, heavy-handed approach that risks driving users away from services. Unless ministers strike the right balance between care and control, he warns, the risk of tragedy will increase.