Pritchard, Sarah --- "The Mentally Ill: An Easy Target" [1996] HRightsDef 21; (1996) Human Rights Defender

The Mentally Ill: An Easy Target

By Sarah Pritchard

Our deepest sympathies go to the grief-stricken families and friends of the 32 people who lost their lives at Port Arthur, Tasmania over the weekend of 26-27 April 1996. Following a tragedy of this immensity, many questions must be asked. Surely, two of the most pressing questions are: Do people need to have access to semi-automatic weapons? How did the alleged gunman obtain access to such a weapon?

The horror and senselessness of events at Port Arthur are likely to be felt by many Australians for a very long time. These include those Australians who suffer from mental illness. Media reports claimed initially that the alleged gunman, Martin Bryant, has an intellectual disability, then that he has sch-izophrenia. To date, the condition of Bryants mental health has not been confirmed. There has been no verif-ication of a diagnosis of sch-izophrenia or of any contact with public or private mental health services in Tasmania. Since a charge of murder has been laid, Tasmanian authorities have refused to comment on whether Bryant has ever been treated for a psychiatric disorder.

Unconfirmed suggestions that the gunman has schizophrenia and the reporting of this through the media have caused deep distress to people with schizophrenia and their carers. Since the weekend of 26-27 April, mental health support groups have been flooded with calls from consumers and carers concerned at being depicted as violent and a threat to the community. Rob Ramjan of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of New South Wales believes that media claims have created an unfortunate ripple effect which will have long term consequences for many people associated with the illness of sch-izophrenia: Our Telephone Information and Referral Service has been overwhelmed by calls from people known in the community or in their place of employment to have schizophrenia who are experiencing discrimination. We have taken numerous calls from people with schizophrenia considering suicide. ... people are being judged and condemned for something they feel as upset about as everybody else in the community.Ó

Barbara Hocking of the ACT Schizophrenia Fellowship comments that in the best of circumstances, schizophrenia is not a word people enjoy using. When associated with a devastating tragedy, people will not use it at all for fear of being judged: They will run for cover completely.Ó In Australia, 180,000 people or 1% of all Australians suffer from sch-izophrenia. The vast number are not violent. They are, according to Barbara Hocking: just going about their own lives with great courage trying to assimilate into the community and not be noticed.Ó

Members of the licenced shooting fraternity are significantly more likely to end up committing murder than those who suffer from mental illness. Recent research from New Zealand has found that the sporting shooter, with his legally obtained weapon, is more likely to be a multiple killer than a criminal or mentally ill person. A study by public health researcher Philip Alpers shows that in 11 multiple shootings between 1987 and 1993 in Australia and New Zealand, 84% of the 70 victims were shot by licenced gun owners. 86% of deaths were by a person with no history of violent crime or any mental illness.

Alpers suggests that the tactic of the gun lobby throughout the world is the same: To deflect firearms legis-lation from themselves by arguing that all criminals and the mentally suspect should be locked away. Alpers analysis is borne out by the Australian gun lobbys reaction to the Port Arthur tragedy. Member of NSW Parliament for the Shooters Party, John Tingle assigned respons-ibility to the behaviour of people not gunsÓ. Bernard McNair of the Schizophrenia Fellowships Council of Australia describes a comment attributed to Tingle - you cant legislate against insanityÓ - as infantile and offensive to people with a mental illness, their carers and the community at large.Ó Queensland Police Minister Russell Cooper has adopted an approach similar to that of Tingle with a proposal to establish a prohibited persons register.

In community reflection upon the killings at Port Arthur, surely the condition of Martin Bryants mental health must be a side-issue. The central issue must be the ease with which it is possible to obtain fire-arms in Australia. People affected by mental illness are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society. They suffer from widespread systemic discrimination and are constantly denied the rights and services to which they are entitled. The 1993 Report of the National Inquiry into the Human Rights of People with Mental Illness found people with mental illness experience discrimination and stigma in almost every aspect of their lives.

Like the discussion of alleged mismanagement in Aboriginal organisations which erupted after the recent Federal elections, reaction to the multiple-killings at Port Arthur demonstrates what easy targets disadvantaged, stigmatised groups make for inaccurate, ill-informed and uncaring public discourse and media reporting.