Psychiatrist sheltered escaped patient in home, tribunal hears
The Sydney-based doctor refused to co-operate with police because she didn't believe the patient was mentally ill
A psychiatrist who harboured an escaped involuntary inpatient believed the person should not have been scheduled and needed “support not pills”, a tribunal has heard.
The patient was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1970s and was involuntarily prescribed aripiprazole under a Community Treatment Order in 2016, according to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The tribunal heard the monthly depot injections were intended to treat an “exacerbation of a schizoaffective disorder (manic) in context of noncompliance with medication and lack of insight”.
But the patient sought a second opinion from the psychiatrist, saying the injections left her with an itchy scalp, pain, insomnia and muscle weakness.
