British psychiatry on the brink

Psychiatrists suggest that the June 2023 killing of three strangers by a psychiatric patient reflected a failure of basic care that has become shockingly commonplace.

Rejection and neglect have become part of everyday work, fostering an attitude of self-protectiveness in staff.

Fragmented care is the norm, and the task psychiatrists are expected to address has become frustratingly narrow.

Psychiatrists are encouraged to ignore what was learned in training, and are increasingly put in impossible positions, no longer able to offer safe or dignified care.

There is no willingness to draw attention to the neglect and brutality that some of our most disturbed and vulnerable patients are experiencing.

A tangle of forces has taken hold and threatens to undermine our therapeutic connection with patients.

The Royal College can’t change things on its own. But it needs to challenge the perverse incentives within the system that are eroding the essence of what it is to be a psychiatrist.