New today

[Meadow]

I have for many years had an interest in crime,  I don't mean the sort ski-fi CSI stuff that television gives us. But really what makes a person tick.  I think a deep interested started when I was a student psychiatric nurse, the word ''recidivism'  .... held some sort of fascination and to some extent being involved in after care for patients decanted from special hospitals.  I'm not especially inquisitive about murder\missing person, but I suppose the the unsolved - tales of the unexplained, of which currently there are many.  I have followed many cases of recent in dept, but still none the wiser.  aka missypuddleduck.

[Andrea]

Hello Meadow, welcome.
Psychiatric nurse eh? Hmmm.... well, as long as you dont start using terms such as 'poor demenetd creature' you should be ok. I find calling a person with a mental illness such a thing disgraceful, but maybe thats just me.

[Meadow]

The interesting thing about training, I suppose for anything, but specifically psychiatry it can take you in many directions in your working career.  From bedside nurse\terminal care for example with dementia, to really challenging behaviour that you might see with Schizophrenia. Some psychiatric nurses work in the prison service or special hospitals (Broadmoor).  But much is really the passing of human life in it's many shapes of forms of the psyche.  Depending where you are and what you are doing, you can pick up a good background in psychology, although now, so I understand sociology is more the chosen path.   Understanding the mental health act, has proven interesting for example with the Dewani case.  But sadly bad 'uns are bad 'uns and there's no excuse that they are mentally ill, but it does help to understand some of the concepts.

[Eleanor]

Personally, I think that anyone who commits a murder is mentally unbalanced, even if only temporarily with some.  But I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so I accept that they all have to be locked up for varying lengths of time.
But I do think more effort should be made to help those who can be helped.

[John]

Personally, I think that anyone who commits a murder is mentally unbalanced, even if only temporarily with some.  But I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so I accept that they all have to be locked up for varying lengths of time.
But I do think more effort should be made to help those who can be helped.

My sentiments exactly Eleanor.  I have always said that murderers and paedophiles are the result of mental disorders of one sort or another.  Unfortunately our society views punishment rather than treatment to be of primary importance.