Elizabeth Ward has stated that psychiatrists knew her husband was at risk from being harmed by their son, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and that there was an urgent need for her son not to live with his father (January 31). Her concerns are also supported by Mary Weir of the National Schizophrenia Foundation of Scotland.
The role of the carer or family of the mentally ill is a tenuous one. The rights of patient confidentiality make the carer's role extremely difficult when the symptoms of a mental illness are deteriorating. Unlike those caring for physical illness, carers of mental illness are rarely involved in discussion regarding the patient, the symptoms of the condition and its care, yet they are the very people constantly seeing the patient and can detect any significant change in the illness. However, more often than not, despite being carers, they have no right to voice such a concern.
Mrs Ward has not only displayed dignity and the loyalty of love throughout this dreadful tragedy, but she possessed the insight and wisdom to know that it was not her son who killed her husband but rather that it was the symptoms of his mental illness. It is essential, therefore, that those who are responsible for the provision of care in the community also possess such a wisdom and insight and pay heed to the voices of the carers and families when anxiety is expressed about the increasing severity and deterioration in the symptoms of mental distress of those in their care.
Jean Johnston, Brincliffe, West Dhuhill Drive, Helensburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article