Forgive the length of this article but I hope you have time
to read it to the end.
Another chapter has closed in the never ending story of a tragedy. I can tell you what the chapter was but the tragedy is one that most are fortunately unable to comprehend. The chapter ended with the sad demise of PC David Rathband, (one of the victims of Roald Moat in his post prison release rampage) at his own hand. Those who knew David (and I was not fortunate enough to be in that number) will be wringing their hands about what they could have done to have prevented this ending of his chapter. But the problem runs far beyond their understanding of his “Problem”. There will be many now who will condemn him for his “Selfish” actions in taking his own life through the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but it is often they who may have had within their grasp the opportunity to have prevented it. The signs were there in David’s case as he separated himself from those who loved him and then in his published Twitter posts with his brother and in interviews with respected journalists.
The tragedy’s prevention, and thousands more like it, rest in the hands of us, you and me, society and it’s ridiculous phobia of any illness which involves the mind. If someone presents themselves with a badly broken arm we will all rush to our phones to call for help, and so we should. But if someone presents themselves with a badly broken mind, few will understand what is happening and fewer will offer help other than telling them to pull themselves together. There is a bigger history of people dying from mental illness than there is of a broken arm and yet we offer far more assistance to the latter. In this latest chapter the threads go back so far and yet are all related and lead to this perhaps inevitable conclusion. Roald Moat told his doctors and his imprisoners not to release him as he was likely to kill and yet he was released and self fulfilled his own prophecy. I do not excuse his actions but who would rationally excuse those who had the opportunity to help him and so prevent what followed and will yet follow still? Those who he has left behind will be riddled with their own guilt and it will affect them throughout their own lives and we hope in not the same fashion as David, but who could ignore the possibility?
A solitary figure in the coffee shop taking perhaps a little longer over their coffee; a solitary figure on a bridge over a river, railway or road; an old man sat on a park bench; a successful high flying business man always on the go, putting together million pound deals; the party goer always the life and soul of ever party that they can get to. These are all people who could be at a point in their lives where a hand on their shoulder or even a smile of friendship would be enough to break the endless cycle of mental health issues which continue unabated in our society daily. Maybe not as high profile as Roald Moat and now David Rathband but the same tragedy is being played out daily in your community, in your family or just on the train to work every morning. We as a society owe it to ourselves to do our bit to break this endless cycle of tragedy. I am not talking about forcing help upon an unwilling recipient, merely taking time to sit and say “It looks like you are struggling, how can I help you?”. You have a heart and an intellect, use both; the intellect to see and read the signs, the heart to offer your love to a soul who will be feeling unloved or unlovable. Let the doctors deal with the medicine, we all have the ability to reverse the tragedy of any impending disaster if we chose to.
Put your hand on your heart and feel it’s beat, it is there, we none of us do enough with it, let’s make a change.....
Another chapter has closed in the never ending story of a tragedy. I can tell you what the chapter was but the tragedy is one that most are fortunately unable to comprehend. The chapter ended with the sad demise of PC David Rathband, (one of the victims of Roald Moat in his post prison release rampage) at his own hand. Those who knew David (and I was not fortunate enough to be in that number) will be wringing their hands about what they could have done to have prevented this ending of his chapter. But the problem runs far beyond their understanding of his “Problem”. There will be many now who will condemn him for his “Selfish” actions in taking his own life through the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but it is often they who may have had within their grasp the opportunity to have prevented it. The signs were there in David’s case as he separated himself from those who loved him and then in his published Twitter posts with his brother and in interviews with respected journalists.
The tragedy’s prevention, and thousands more like it, rest in the hands of us, you and me, society and it’s ridiculous phobia of any illness which involves the mind. If someone presents themselves with a badly broken arm we will all rush to our phones to call for help, and so we should. But if someone presents themselves with a badly broken mind, few will understand what is happening and fewer will offer help other than telling them to pull themselves together. There is a bigger history of people dying from mental illness than there is of a broken arm and yet we offer far more assistance to the latter. In this latest chapter the threads go back so far and yet are all related and lead to this perhaps inevitable conclusion. Roald Moat told his doctors and his imprisoners not to release him as he was likely to kill and yet he was released and self fulfilled his own prophecy. I do not excuse his actions but who would rationally excuse those who had the opportunity to help him and so prevent what followed and will yet follow still? Those who he has left behind will be riddled with their own guilt and it will affect them throughout their own lives and we hope in not the same fashion as David, but who could ignore the possibility?
A solitary figure in the coffee shop taking perhaps a little longer over their coffee; a solitary figure on a bridge over a river, railway or road; an old man sat on a park bench; a successful high flying business man always on the go, putting together million pound deals; the party goer always the life and soul of ever party that they can get to. These are all people who could be at a point in their lives where a hand on their shoulder or even a smile of friendship would be enough to break the endless cycle of mental health issues which continue unabated in our society daily. Maybe not as high profile as Roald Moat and now David Rathband but the same tragedy is being played out daily in your community, in your family or just on the train to work every morning. We as a society owe it to ourselves to do our bit to break this endless cycle of tragedy. I am not talking about forcing help upon an unwilling recipient, merely taking time to sit and say “It looks like you are struggling, how can I help you?”. You have a heart and an intellect, use both; the intellect to see and read the signs, the heart to offer your love to a soul who will be feeling unloved or unlovable. Let the doctors deal with the medicine, we all have the ability to reverse the tragedy of any impending disaster if we chose to.
Put your hand on your heart and feel it’s beat, it is there, we none of us do enough with it, let’s make a change.....
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