Dr Russ Scott1
1West Moreton Prison Mental Health Service, Archerfield, Australia, 2University of Queensland, St Lucia Brisbane, Australia
Biography:
Dr Scott was the first forensic psychiatrist accredited by the Royal Australian and NZ College of Psychiatrists and has been the consultant psychiatrist to acute inpatient units at Thomas Embling Hospital in Melbourne and the High Security Inpatient Services in Brisbane. He is a past president of the Medico-Legal Society of Queensland and Queensland Branch of ANZAPPL. Between 2008 – 2011, he was the medical issues section editor, Journal of Law and Medicine. In 2022, he was appointed Clinical Associate Professor, School of Medicine, University of Queensland. He is currently a psychiatrist to the West Moreton Prison Mental Health Service.
Abstract:
After a burning liquid was thrown over a bus driver in Brisbane, Australia, it was reported across the world that the 29-year-old victim was a Punjabi Indian and that his killing may have been a hate crime. A subsequent independent inquiry found that the perpetrator, a single unemployed man who was estranged from his family and had no social supports, had a 10-year history of mental illness. Although he had previously had two inpatient treatment episodes and had been subject to the involuntary treatment provisions of the Mental Health Act (Qld), he was discharged from a community mental health service four and a half months earlier. At the time of his discharge, the man was not referred to any general practitioner or private psychiatrist and his delusional disorder (persecutory type) remained untreated up to the time of the tragedy. In October 2023, the Queensland Coroners Court published the inquest findings which were critical of the decision to discharge the man particularly after he attempted to re-engage with the community mental health service within a month of his discharge.
After reviewing the salient features of the case, the presentation will highlight the tension between the principles of patient autonomy and the ‘recovery model’ of mental illness as opposed to the need to assertively manage persons with serious mental illness to prevent harm to the person or others. The facts of the Queensland case have similarities to the recent stabbing murders of six people in the Bondi Junction shopping mall in Sydney.