By Tony Wall
The families of murder victim Malcolm Beggs and the disturbed teenager who killed him with an axe are both appalled at the failure of the mental health system.
They spoke yesterday of their grief at what they believe were preventable deaths.
Mr Beggs' body was found in his bed at his Henderson home on Monday. He was killed while he slept. Nineteen-year-old Lachlan Alexander Jones was found in the garage, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Police say they found about six stubbies of beer in Jones' room at the house in Universal Drive, but do not believe alcohol or drugs were a factor. No note was found, and detectives say they may never know what set Jones off.
Mr Beggs' sister Marilyn demanded to know who was accountable for allowing Jones to leave the Te Atarau acute psychiatric unit at Waitakere Hospital against medical advice in July.
She found it perverse that a nurse invaded her brother's privacy by entering his home without his knowledge to see Jones, yet the Privacy Act was the reason Mr Beggs could not be told of his flatmate's condition.
Last night Jones' father, newspaper editor Owen Jones, said: "I think Lachie has been let down by the system. Why was he allowed to discharge himself if he was that mentally ill?"
Waitemata Health has begun an inquiry into the mental health services' dealings with and follow-up care of Jones, who was first admitted to hospital a year ago after a failed suicide bid. He had no history of violence.
A mobile intensive treatment team had been seeing him to ensure he took his medication, but Mr Beggs had no idea he was mentally ill.
Marilyn Beggs, a 19-year-old trainee nurse, said yesterday that her brother spoke to her of his concerns last Wednesday.
"One day a nurse came around and he wondered why she was there. He was joking about it, but I think deep down he was worried."
She said that if her brother had known about Jones' mental history, he would not just have kicked him out on to the street.
"Malcolm was a good guy and he was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Mr Jones, from Hawkes Bay, said his son first started becoming withdrawn at about 16, and had begun hearing voices and having visions, although he had not been formally diagnosed as schizophrenic.
During his first stint in hospital, doctors discharged him because they were convinced he was well enough to take his medication and look for work.
"Who was right, and who was wrong?"
Mr Jones said he would remember his son as a delightful, happy boy, and an incredibly skilled artist.
The director of mental health services for Waitemata Health, Dr Wayne Miles, said it was a tragedy that two young men had died, but if anything was to blame it was society's prejudice against the mentally ill.
The Privacy Act prevented health workers from divulging a person's medical details, and many patients did not want the information known because they feared discrimination.
"It's often in their interests that key people they live with ... know they have a mental illness, but you're not going to tell them on day one when you don't know whether that person will then pull the rug from under your feet."
Two grieving families ask for answers
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