Get involved: Warnings on mental health

This society is hardly in a position to criticise another one when its inaction on warnings about an individual’s mental stability leads to tragedy. 

We have, unfortunately, a litany of such cases wending their way through our coroners’ courts. Thankfully, none is on the scale of the one where a doctor recommended that a German pilot, who went on to crash a Germanwings jet into the Alps last year, should be treated in a psychiatric hospital, two weeks before the disaster in which 150 people were killed.

We still cling to a difficult-to-understand convention that precludes doctors discussing an individual’s mental state with their immediate family, to either enlist their help or warn them of how finely balanced an individual’s wellbeing is. This seems an utterly outdated position and it has been challenged by families who have had to endure the deadly brunt of a loved one’s implosion. Despite huge advances, we need to do much more to help those struggling with mental health. Maybe we should turn to that wise adage: A problem shared is a problem halved.