ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter concerns itself with mental health inquiries, mainly those into homicides committed by persons known to the mental health services both in the NHS and related agencies such as social services, probation and prisons. My own experience embraces chairmanship of three rather different mental health inquiries; first, that into the death of Orville Blackwood at Broadmoor Hospital (Prins et a/. 1993); second, that into the absconsion from day leave of a medium-secure unit offender-patient during a visit to a zoo and theme park (Prins et a/. 1997); third, that into a homicide committed by a patient known to the mental health services (Prins et al. 1998). Although these inquiries were somewhat different in nature they all involved a common theme - the assessment and management of risk. In the Blackwood case, the risk of dangerous behaviour was somewhat over-emphasised {2. rather unusual finding), in the Holland and Patel Inquiries the risks of future problematic behaviour were under-estimated {iot a detailed presentation and discussion of these three cases see Prins 1999, Chapter 4). Each threw up problems relating to chairmanship. However, my views deriving from these experiences could well be seen as highly idiosyncratic; in order to offset this probability I addressed a letter of inquiry to thirteen persons who had chaired mental health inquiries, almost exclusively those into homicides. Following reminders, nine chairmen/women replied to my letter and I am most grateful to them for their assistance. Anonymity was guaranteed so that their views have been expressed in composite fashion later in this chapter. My choice of respondents was based largely on those I could contact comparatively easily. Because of this, the sample cannot be regarded as strongly representative; for this reason, the views I have collated should therefore be regarded with a degree of caution. Before proceeding to an analysis of my respondents' views, it may be useful to provide a degree of context-setting.
