By REBECCA WALSH health reporter
An Auckland couple are living in fear of their mentally ill son who was released into the community the day they say a doctor told them he should be kept in hospital.
The 33-year-old with a record of drug use, including P, is living in a West Auckland boarding house.
His family are planning to sell up and move. They never leave his mother alone in the house.
Her husband said: "We have reached the end of our tether. It's tearing the family apart. We live in this constant state of apprehension that he may show up on the doorstep."
The Herald agreed not to report their ordeal for 24 hours to allow the Waitemata District Health Board time to act.
The same board was responsible for the care of Lachlan Jones, who killed his flatmate and then committed suicide while under the care of a Waitemata community team in 1999.
Yesterday a board spokesman said the man in the West Auckland boarding house was receiving appropriate treatment in the community, was being monitored daily and was stable.
But the family, whom the Herald has agreed not to name as a condition of obtaining patient information from the health board, said that level of supervision was not sufficient.
The man's father said his son, who has a police record, had been in hospital three times with his mental illness, most recently in July.
The family were not clear about his diagnosis but said they had been told he had paranoid schizophrenia.
His 76-year-old father, who last saw him on Father's Day, said his son had been arrested on July 24 after a car chase. The police were armed.
The family said he was taken to Taharoto, the acute mental health unit at North Shore Hospital. They were told by a psychiatrist he would need treatment as an inpatient for up to a year, followed by six months' rehabilitation.
Two weeks later he was transferred to Waitakere Hospital. On September 5 a psychiatrist from the Mason Clinic assessed him and said he should be kept in the acute unit for further treatment.
The same day a staff member, who said she should not be ringing, contacted the family to say he had been released and returned to the boarding house.
The family received no "official word" of his release.
The man's mother, 66, said she was never left alone in the house because she was terrified of him. As a 17-year-old he had held a knife to her throat during an argument.
"It seems to be women he targets, not men ... He's a bully. I want them to take him back and work out what's wrong with him, instead of letting him out after six weeks."
Other family members drew parallels with the case of paranoid schizophrenic Mark Burton, who killed his mother the day after being released from hospital in 2001.
Waitemata District Health Board's general manager of mental health services, Dave Davies, said the hospital had taken the family's concerns seriously. He would not comment on the claim that their son had been released just hours after they were told he should be kept in hospital.
"This man has been thoroughly assessed by our clinicians. They believe that the treatment he is receiving currently is the appropriate clinical treatment."
Mr Davies said the man took his medication and had daily meetings at the clinic or his boarding house with a psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse or worker.
A social worker was working with him to find more appropriate accommodation.
Mr Davies said the man felt betrayed by his parents going to the media.
The owner of the boarding house said it had space for 18 people in two houses, four caravans and a sleep-out. It was purely accommodation and provided no health or social services. The boarding house caretaker said the man was quiet and trouble-free.
- additional reporting: Martin Johnston and Alan Perrott
Couple's terror as sick son released
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