{"id":945800,"date":"2026-10-25T14:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945800\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T14:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T14:30:21","slug":"mental-healthcare-gaps-psychiatrists-wanted-to-understand-homicide-patterns-they-found-a-deadly-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945800\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental healthcare gaps: Psychiatrists wanted to understand homicide patterns. They found a deadly warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 25, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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Homicides committed by people experiencing psychosis in Victoria have quintupled, jumping from just over four per year a decade ago to more than 20, in what researchers say is a \u201cdangerous sign\u201d that gaps in the state\u2019s mental health system are allowing preventable tragedies.<\/p>\n

New research reveals that 12 of the cases in the past two years involved someone accused of killing a stranger while in the grip of psychosis, when statistics indicate there would usually be only one or two such cases in that time.<\/p>\n

It comes as experts warn that recent high-profile violence, including the attack on MP Helen Haines<\/a> in Wangaratta and the Dezi Freeman police killings<\/a> in nearby Porepunkah, is in part a consequence of a chronically under-resourced and poorly organised system stretched to breaking point.<\/p>\n

\"BrendanBrendan Nugent had changed from a passionate environmentalist to a loner living in isolation when he allegedly attacked Helen Haines.Matthew Absalom-Wong\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, nine forensic psychiatrists across Victoria became concerned by the mounting number of very unwell people they were being asked to assess for court and undertook research to see if this was the extreme result of a wider crisis in the mental health system.<\/p>\n

Their findings, to be presented at a gathering of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law on Wednesday, are alarming.<\/p>\n

Forty-five people diagnosed with psychotic disorders were charged with homicides in the two years between January 2024 and December 2025. By comparison, in the 18 years between 1997 and 2015, there were 77 homicides committed by someone experiencing psychosis.<\/p>\n

The rate of psychotic homicides in 2024-25 has risen to 3.1 per million people a year \u2013 almost four times the rate of 0.79 per million in the earlier decade. The analysis, led by practising forensic psychiatrist Rajan Darjee of Swinburne University, found four out of five of the unwell people charged with murder or manslaughter had received treatment from mental health services in the past, though about half were not under active treatment at the time of the homicide.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe converted bus and living space where the Freemans lived, in one corner of the farm owned by Rebecca and Andrew Swift.Jason South<\/p>\n

Based on the previous levels of illness and violence here and in similar jurisdictions, Darjee found that Victoria could have expected 10 homicides related to psychosis over those two years \u2013 meaning the 33 additional deaths could have been prevented<\/a> by the availability of better mental health care across the state.<\/p>\n

In Victoria\u2019s north-east regions, those healthcare supports Haines\u2019 alleged attacker Brendan Nugent had sought out are in short supply, this masthead has revealed<\/a>, while dangerous conspiracies and anti-government ideologies have taken root locally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Professor<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a statewide mental healthcare crisis, extensively reported on by this masthead<\/a>, which experts say has failed to attract sufficient government action even after the Freeman case, the pandemic and a royal commission calling for major investment in the regions five years ago.<\/p>\n

Dr Pramudie Gunaratne, who heads the Australian Society of Psychiatrists and was not involved in the homicide analysis, said it was too early to say how big a factor mental health played in the Haines incident. But the case and others \u201cshows what happens when we\u2019re flying blind\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Darjee and Gunaratne stress that violence committed by people with mental illness is still extremely rare, and that mental health does not explain extremism. Freeman, for example, was not believed to be in the grip of psychosis when he murdered two police<\/a> officers and injured a third.<\/p>\n

Violence by people who are mentally unwell is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems with mental healthcare, says Darjee, and \u201chomicide is the very tip of that tip\u201d. But when the number of homicides grows, it means the iceberg of problems is getting bigger, he says. It\u2019s a warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many stories of people hurting, even killing, their families, that never reach the media\u201d and they never would have happened if the person had been well, Gunaratne said. \u201cWe have effective treatments, but it\u2019s still so hard to get someone into care.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed to the Westfield Bondi Junction attacks of 2024, which revealed major failings in psychiatric care<\/a> when Joel Cauchi, a man living with schizophrenia who had fallen into homelessness, went on a fatal stabbing spree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have these tragedies, but nothing ever changes,\u201d Gunaratne said. \u201cWe don\u2019t even keep waiting lists like we do for knee surgeries and things so we don\u2019t know who we\u2019re turning away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The psychiatrists\u2019 society will write to federal Health Minister Mark Butler on Monday with an urgent proposal to fund a national \u201cobservatory\u201d project, tracking mental health service demand to help fix the \u201cfragmented, siloed\u201d system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a postcode lottery right now,\u201d Gunaratne said. \u201cTreatment depends on what\u2019s available where you are, not what you need. The equivalent in cancer care would be telling a patient that the best treatment for their condition is surgery and chemotherapy, but sorry, we don\u2019t have surgery as an option here so we\u2019ll just do chemo…\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Brendan<\/a><\/p>\n

Police are investigating connections between Haines and her accused attacker Nugent, as well as any potential connection between Nugent and the local sovereign citizen movement to which Freeman belonged<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2016 study led by the Queensland Fixated Threat Assessment Centre found that \u201cfixated loners\u201d who target public officials frequently suffer from serious mental illnesses, including psychiatric disorders.<\/p>\n

In 93 per cent of the moderate and high-risk cases examined, the offender was known to police or health professionals, but their risk was not properly identified. Nearly half suffered from severe mental illness, with delusional disorders frequently missed or neglected by clinicians. <\/p>\n

Related Article\"Budget<\/a><\/p>\n

Victoria Police\u2019s counter-terrorism command strategy noted back in 2022 that \u201cthere has been an increase in the presence of mental disorders\u201d among terrorists, especially lone actors.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, ASIO said it was observing a rise in domestic actors who are driven by both personal grievance and ideology, including conspiracy theories and anti-government views.<\/p>\n

Ahead of presenting the latest findings on Victorian psychotic homicides on Wednesday, Darjee stressed that the attention should be on failures in the healthcare system, rather than on the vulnerable people who rely on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that in over 80 per cent of cases, the psychosis played a direct role in the homicide,\u201d Darjee said. \u201cBy that, I mean that the person maybe had paranoid delusions or hallucinations that actually directly drove them to the behaviour that led to the victim dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in less clear-cut cases, illness played a significant role, he said. \u201cFor example, where people are very, very unwell, and that leads them to being disorganised, disinhibited, and scared and, in that context, a homicide occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meant with better access to treatment, including earlier support before conditions spiral or compulsory admissions when needed, Darjee said tragedies like this could be avoided.<\/p>\n

\u201dWhen these people are well, they\u2019re not people who usually have a propensity towards violence,\u201d Darjee said. Many he had met \u201cafter they\u2019ve gotten better\u201d weren\u2019t aggressive or violent, and were usually left \u201cabsolutely distraught\u201d that they had hurt someone while unwell. Often that victim was someone close to them, he added.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

The president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association Dr Simon Judkins said there was a desperate shortage of mental health beds and facilities<\/a>, including for drug and alcohol issues, outside the cities. There had been little improvement since the royal commission into mental health of 2021, he said, noting that the Carroll government had paused its plan to establish regional mental health and wellbeing boards.<\/p>\n

Haines, a former nurse, had long been calling herself for an urgent injection of healthcare resources in Victoria\u2019s north-east. Just days before she was attacked, Haines had been lobbying Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to address an estimated $9 billion spending gap<\/a> between the regions and the cities. \u201cI regularly hear from people who can\u2019t find a GP [or] must travel long distances for mental health appointments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With Cameron Houston<\/p>\n

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Close\"SherrynSherryn Groch<\/a> is a journalist at The Age covering crime. Email her at s.groch@nine.com.au or contact her securely on Signal @SherrynG.70Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"CarlaCarla Jaeger<\/a> is a journalist for The Age. Got a tip? Email carla.jaeger@theage.com.au or message carlajaeger.62 on Signal.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 25, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":["post-945800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}