THE cruel nature of mental illness and the difficulty society has in dealing with it were starkly on display in the case of the late Michael Capel, shot dead by police at a Belmont caravan park in 2008.
Mr Capel, 43, had suffered from schizophrenia since his 20s and had been taking medication for the illness.
His mother, worried when she couldn't contact him and suspecting he was not taking his medication, flew to Newcastle from Tweed Heads to check on him.
Many relatives of mentally ill people will identify with her situation. Failure to take medication is extremely common and a frequent precursor to serious episodes.
In this case Mr Capel became uncharacteristically violent with his mother, who phoned mental health services for help.
Mr Capel's mother told a recent inquest into her son's death that the health services told her to call police. She phoned police about 11am but police did not attend until 4.50pm. Mr Capel again became agitated, threatening neighbours and police with a knife.
Police tried to subdue him with capsicum spray. When this failed an officer shot him eight times, ending his life.
Many questions come to mind. Should Mr Capel's mother have been able to alert her son's mental health caseworker - assuming he had one - to her fears for his welfare and cause them to investigate? Was his compliance with medication being monitored by health service staff?
Was there a better option than police attendance? Should police officers attending such cases carry stun guns?
Sadly, chronic under-resourcing of mental health services means similar dilemmas are relatively common. It can be very difficult for family members of mentally ill people to achieve satisfactory communication with health services and service availability is notoriously patchy.
Police are too often forced to deal with circumstances outside their training or experience and, all too frequently, their marked cars and uniforms may exacerbate the problem.
The coroner who heard the Capel case has been asked to consider six recommendations - including better training for more police - designed to help reduce the risk of similar tragedies in future.
Any improvements in this fraught area will be welcome, but the best way to avoid such dangerous crises would be to invest in a better and more co-ordinated system of care for the mentally ill.
Unwanted charity
SOME people have a strange idea of charity. Rubbish and bulky goods dumped in and around second-hand clothing bins not only provide no benefit to the charities that own the bins, they actually cost them a fortune.
The St Vincent de Paul Society had to spend about $50,000 last year to dispose of useless rubbish dumped by thoughtless people. And now the Samaritans have decided that the cost of disposal is so close to outweighing the value of donations that its bins are no longer worth keeping.
Dumpers take note: your actions are cancelling the benefit of genuine donations to help the needy. Keep your dubious charity at home.
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