Bondi Junction attack inquest hears mental health sector needs reform

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An inquest into the Bondi Punction stabbing attack has been told of the need for significant reform in the mental health sector. In April last year Joel Cauchi killed six people when he indiscriminately stabbed shoppers before he was shot dead by a police inspector. Today the coroner was hearing final submissions.

Transcript

00:00Well, there are 26 draft recommendations on the table after an extensive process involving

00:07police, the victims' families and many different experts who gave evidence to this inquest.

00:13The council assisting, Dr Peggy Dwye SC, has made submissions which largely focused on

00:18the mental health sector.

00:20There were clear signs that Joel Couchy was experiencing chronic schizophrenia in the

00:24lead up to this attack.

00:26He was unmedicated and he was also experiencing homelessness after moving from Queensland

00:31to New South Wales.

00:33Dr Dwye has told the court that there's very little controversy about the need for reform

00:37and more investment in community-based treatment options for people with chronic mental illness,

00:44including long-term and short-term accommodation solutions.

00:48Dr Dwye has said that this follows decades of underinvestment and a move towards deinstitutionalisation

00:55which began from the 1960s.

00:58And she's used some figures to highlight the decline in services.

01:01The court's been told that in 1991 there were about 1,100 short-stay beds in the four main

01:08inner Sydney hostels which provided people with things like meals but also psychiatric care.

01:14And now there are fewer than 300 temporary beds and only two of those places offer walk-up

01:19psychiatric care.

01:21One of the draft recommendations goes to that decline in services.

01:25And it's that the New South Wales Health Department should serve as the lead agency in advising

01:30the government about the decline in services and how to address it.

01:35We've also heard today about Joel Couchy's specific treatment in Queensland.

01:39Between 2012 and 2020 he was under the care of psychiatrist Dr Andrea Barros Lavac.

01:46And the court's been told that during much of that period he received good care but towards

01:50the end he was weaned off his anti-psychotic medication.

01:54The court's been told that there were missed opportunities, largely in the form of some

01:59concerns that were being expressed by his mother about what she saw to be his deteriorating

02:04mental health.

02:06When the psychiatrist gave evidence earlier this year she suggested that Joel Couchy was not

02:10psychotic during this attack and that he might have been motivated by malice or a hatred towards

02:16women.

02:17Dr Barros Lavac resiled from that position but the counsel assisting has told the court that

02:22that evidence was defensive and the response suggested a lack of insight.

02:27The court will continue to hear these submissions over two days this week.

02:31After today it will return on Friday for more closing submissions.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended