...all the consequences are borne by the victims, as usual.
In 2021 Williams was admitted to the Coniston ward at Whiston Hospital near St Helens. However Dr Higgins stated in court: 'Despite noting multiple bizarre behaviours, and concerns raised by the family, no diagnosis is made, other than the diagnosis of autism being taken as fact, and no treatment is offered, although a recommendation is made that he be followed up by the Early Intervention Team.'
She added: 'They (the family) were mocked for trying to get him help. It was very poor clinical care indeed.'Not content with incompetence, they threw in the usual lying too:
It was after that he spent a week in Whiston hospital but while staff assured the family that he was sleeping well, they knew he was posting on Facebook all through the night.
How did they know? Probably because that's what they were doing themselves...
Imposing an indefinite hospital order Judge Andrew Menary, KC, the Recorder of Liverpool said that Williams was described as 'a delightful, loving, caring young man who in normal circumstances would never have done anything like this.'
He told the defendant, who appeared via video link: 'Whether the events of this night of May 10, 2022 could have been avoided by much earlier diagnosis and intervention he will never know for sure.
'But the views of the consultant psychiatrists in this case - that there has been a wholesale failure of mental health provision and numerous missed opportunities to identify and attempt to treat your serious and enduring chronic condition of paranoid schizophrenia.
'This includes what is described by Dr Higgins as a catastrophic misdiagnosis that you suffered from a neurological-diverse condition when it is her very firm view that you are not autistic.'
It doesn't matter what the judge says, the NHS will avoid any serious consequence for what, in any orther industry, would have the HSE crawling all over them...
He continued: 'The previous responses of clinicians appear to have been pathetically inadequate and might be a reflection of the gaps in mental health provision currently available or might be the result of overworked or under-resourced practitioners.
'Sadly it is the experience of this court that this situation is not a rare occurrence and the consequence is utter devastation of yet another family.'
It's not a case of 'underresourcing', it's a failure to do the basic job they are paid to do because they know full well they are in no danger of facing consequences for failure. Until that stops, this will continue.
Having an Autistic son I can well understand the lack of care. I went with my son to A&E and they failed to meet any timeline they presented us with for treatment. Now to a normal person that's just the nature of the NHS and A&E departments, but to an autistic, the medics are continually lying. In the end, after 8 hours of "being lied to" my son decided to leave. The doctor only deigned to appear when my son threatened to leave. By which time it was too late to convince my son to stay. All the Doctor was concerned about was someone signing a bit of paper to say my son had discharged himself voluntarily. I told him in no uncertain terms about how badly he and his department had "cared" for someone who was autistic.
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