On the train on the way into work this morning I read a headline over another commuter's shoulder: "Freed, liar who killed her baby". It was, of course, courtesy of our old friend the Daily Mail.
The story was referring to the case of Danielle Wails, the 22-year-old who was given three years' probation yesterday for starting a fire in her home in which her baby son died while she was suffering from post-natal depression.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of readers' comments posted on the Daily Mail's website in response to this story demand that Wails be locked up for good and the key thrown away.
But the world is not black and white. To simply hold this young mother fully accountable would be to ignore her state of mental health at the time, her previous cries for help, her inability to cope and her repeated attempts to apparently hide this fact from health and social services.
Wails already has a life sentence: she must live with the knowledge that her actions killed her son. The critical thing the rest of us can take from this case is the importance of treating diagnoses of post-natal depression seriously, and of ensuring that missed health and social care appointments and unanswered phone calls trigger alarm bells and result in more, not less, attention.
In the recent social exclusion action plan, Reaching Out, the government recognised the importance of persistence in trying to reach those most in need:
"In the face of an unanswered door, letter or call, some of our mainstream services back off or give up. This cannot be an acceptable response to the plight of the most excluded. Where there are reasons for concern, this disengagement must be met with a redoubling of efforts to engage."The 10 health-led pilot projects being set up under this action plan to offer universal parenting support from pre-birth to age 2 could hold the key to preventing another case like this happening again.
Comments (2)
Ah, The Mail - why let the more complex facts of a case get in the way of a good "hang 'em, flog 'em" story. Mind you, had he been a man who was depressed and had killed his child, one wonders what sentence he would have got.
Posted by Patrick | October 31, 2006 1:35 PM
Posted on October 31, 2006 13:35
In the UK there are more than two million people with chronic depression and fatigue equivalent to 1.5 percent of our population. Over the last two centuries, despite countless billions of tax payer’s money and billions of man hours of research, medical organizations around the world have not discovered the root cause, nor effective modalities of treatment for conditions such as post traumatic incident syndrome, depression, anxiety, panic, manic depression (Bi-polar disorder), postnatal depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, psychotic behaviour, psychosis and the hundreds of other mental and physical conditions that torment not only those suffering but, by interdependency, millions of healthy people worldwide.
The idea that how we behave and how we feel might be beyond our rational control is largely unbelievable to most healthy people. Such people are extremely fortunate as they have a stable, near central Assemblage Point. This idea is acceptable and can be easily comprehended by anyone us who has experienced any of the following:
1) Serious accident, bereavement, disease, fever, tragedy, chronic stress or depression.
2) Distressed or oppressed childhood, rape or sexual assault, violent intimidation. kidnapping, abduction, enslavement.
3) Self laceration, mutilation or poisoning, attempted suicide, substance and drug, indulgence, drug overdose, mental institution.
4) Mugging, robbery, burglary, fraud, identity theft.
5) Genocide, war, terrorism, homicide, torture, post military combat trauma, imprisonment.
6) Physical or psychological intimidation, interrogation, brainwashing.
7) Betrayal, financial or legal intimidation, blackmail, malicious divorce, bankruptcy, redundancy, home repossession, arrest, prosecution.
Under any of these circumstances many people can undergo a serious or seemingly permanent change of their mood or even a personality change. One common factor that many victims of traumatic incidents attempt to convey is that some inexplicable fundamental thing deep inside them has changed or shifted at the time of the incident. Many also report that no matter how hard they try, what medications and therapies they undertake, they are unable to return to their former health, state of mind, personality and good humour. They may also develop physical symptoms and illness. This may eventually lead to more serious disease.
The root cause is the position of our Assemblage Point. It is a pivotal force on our state of health and has a dominating effect on ‘how we feel’ and ‘how we behave’. Any of the above incident types can and do cause an involuntary shift of the Assemblage Point to a dangerous low location. To recover one’s former health and happiness, the Assemblage Point location must be shifted back to the centre of the chest.
This is explained and supported with 300 illustrations and true personal accounts in two books by Jon Whale entitled: The Catalyst of Power - The Assemblage Point Of Man and Naked Spirit. For a free informative demonstration see:
http://dragonrising.com/downloads/catalyst_of_power_demo.htm For an even better information see: http://www.whalemedical.com/cs2.html
Posted by Dr Jon Whale | November 10, 2006 10:29 AM
Posted on November 10, 2006 10:29