"He should have got the help that was asked for, and he should not have died" . . . Sugule Mohamed sits near a graduation picture of Awale.Awale Mohamed had been pleading for help for days. He knew he was psychotic and was telling anyone who would listen that he was ready to kill himself.
On Monday a GP referred him to a psychiatrist, who said he could see Mr Mohamed in six weeks. St George Hospital said it could not assess him until Tuesday afternoon.
When he finally reached the hospital's mental health unit, he was sent home after an hour's assessment by a nurse with an assurance that he would be OK.
Twenty-four hours later, Mr Mohamed was taken back to St George in an ambulance, having been shot dead in the street by police.
The 31-year-old had attacked 22-year-old Matthew Fitzhenry on the shopping strip in Riverwood for no apparent reason and failed to answer the demands of the officer to drop his knife.
Mr Fitzhenry, an honours graduate in chemical engineering from UNSW, was walking home from doing the grocery shopping for a shared house when he was grabbed from behind by Mr Mohamed outside a video shop.
Mr Mohamed's closest relative in Australia, his cousin Sugule Mohamed, suspects that "when he saw the police there's a high possibility that Awale might have panicked".
After releasing Mr Fitzhenry, he started stabbing himself as he moved towards the policeman. Witnesses reported hearing three shots during the incident.
After visiting his son in St George Hospital yesterday, John Fitzhenry said Matthew was sitting up in bed recovering from wounds to his lungs and other cuts he sustained while defending himself. He thanked police for saving his son's life.
Sugule Mohamed does not blame anyone for what happened on Wednesday afternoon, but he wants to know why the mental health system failed Awale.
"He should have got the help that was asked for, and he should not have died," Mr Mohamed said.
Awale Osman Mohamed was born in Somalia and moved to Australia eight years ago to become an architect.
He was a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Design from the University of Canberra, and was undergoing studies in the nation's capital when the first signs of his mental illness appeared in July last year.
What started as a sense that other students did not like him developed into paranoia that secret cameras had been installed in his room and that others including police were out to get him.
In early December, he called his cousin Sugule in distress after a university counsellor said there was nothing wrong with him.
"He said 'do you love me?' " Sugule said. "I said yes. He said 'come and get me now'."
Mr Mohamed moved into a flat at Riverwood with Sugule, Sugule's wife and their seven-month-old son. His mental condition continued to deteriorate until last weekend, when he first said he intended killing himself.
"Last Sunday morning he said to me 'Sugule, life is not worth living and I'm going to end it. People are staring at me. People are after me. Everybody is after me. Even the police are after me. I can't take it any more. I will finish it up.'
" On Monday, Sugule took his cousin to a local GP, who quickly diagnosed Awale as suffering schizophrenia and prescribed Zyprexa Olanzapine - a drug used to treat schizophrenia and acute bipolar mania. She wrote an urgent referral to a psychiatrist, but the cousins were told Awale could not get a consultation for up to six weeks.
Sugule's brother went to see the GP, who called the psychiatrist herself.
The psychiatrist's secretary said he was busy but would call back.
"They still haven't called us back and Awale is in the morgue." At 5pm, Sugule's wife called the mental health service at St George Hospital. A nurse said that Awale could not be seen until Tuesday afternoon, but to take him to the hospital's emergency department if his condition deteriorated rapidly.
The hospital called on Tuesday and confirmed a 2pm appointment. When Sugule arrived with his cousin a nurse began his assessment in a waiting room. "He said to me 'He's getting some psychotic episodes. I don't know what's
By Stephen Gibbs and Michael Pelly January 16, 2004
According to ABC Radio News the hospital procedures prior to the man death (R.I.P.) are to be investigated by someone from CORRECTIONS Health Service (?!) I wonder how the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald et al got their photographers in the scene so soon...
Anyway the whole sorry business shows the rule of Psych System - ask for help and you won't get any (at most some pills or a jab that might knock you out or send you completely nuts or do nothing much), try and avoid them and they'll lock you up and shoot you full of junk - and Policing as per the old saying, 'He went mad and the police shot him'.
The unusual neuropsychiatrist Greisinger, who advocated for worker's rights against being poisoned by lead paint described an epileptic patient who would be seized by an irresistible disposition to commit murder, and ask to be tied up to prevent this, then he would be exhausted and experience slight convulsive movements. This would last a couple of days. (cited in Trimble's "The Psychoses of Epilepsy").
Do you think that someone could have such wishes respected and then be let free in our society?
By Mental Health 19 January 04
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN N S W
Ms CLOVER MOORE (Bligh) [4.43 p.m.]: Today I speak about the shocking situation for people with mental illness, and call for urgent government action. There have been calls for reform of mental health services as far back as the 1983 Richmond report, followed by the 1988 Barclay report and the 1993 Burdekin report.
Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.
The psychiatric protection order for the "battered mental patient"
Psychiatric patients are routinely treated against their will. Legally enforceable psychiatric protection orders would protect patients from coercive psychiatric interventions...
Forensic Hospital at Long Bay
NSW should reject the government decision to set up a secure forensic hospital at Long Bay - or in any place where it can be influenced by the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) (or probably Corrections Health Service (CHS) for that matter).
Eli Lilly buys Schizophrenia Fellowship
I think anyone concerned about the capture of community/consumer groups by pharmaceutical companies will not feel reassured by the current website of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW.
Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital: Escape from hell?
A third person has escaped from the Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital as health authorities prepare to begin a second review of security.
Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
A report being released today documents disturbing evidence about mental health for children in detention centres.
Letter from the mother of a prisoner on remand at the High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre I am writing to give you permission to make any inquiries on my behalf as I am invalid pensioner who doesn't drive and been only well enough to travel by train once in 15 months to see my son Scott Simpson. I have enclosed a copy of Scott's letter and also a copy of gaol papers form I have to fill out and wait to see if I'm allowed in to see him. He doesn't get any visits. He is in the Supermax and deprived of any privileges not even legal Aid will fund a solicitor to see him in Goulburn.
Judicial, mental health and police corruption
Ian Kay, who blew the whistle on judicial and police corruption here in Victoria has recently been improperly incarcerated in MAP Prison, Melbourne for doing nothing more than writing a letter of complaint to his local MP.
Intolerable Conditions of Prisoners at Goulburn's HRMU
We wish to with respect, level a serious complaint against the Chief Executive Officer, Corrections Health Services, Dr Richard Matthews.
