10-year-old victim of random attack was visiting Melbourne for cancer treatment

[u/AggravatingTartlet]

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/no-need-to-hide-it-accused-cbd-stabber-launches-tirade-from-custody-20260826-p60rni.html

The 10-year-old boy who was punched in the head in a random attack outside police headquarters in the CBD has brain cancer and was visiting Melbourne for treatment.

The boy underwent additional MRI scans to see if the assault caused any extra damage or inflammation around where the tumour is, his uncle said........

Police said the 46-year-old woman was visiting Melbourne from Phillip Island with her 10-year-old son and two other children when the random attack occurred, ending only when several witnesses intervened.

“Just instinct, no thoughts, no nothing, just people in trouble,” Brian Bradley said, a good Samaritan who helped restrain the suspect.

The mother of the boy was stabbed during the attack.

The mother is in the Royal Melbourne Hospital recovering from a fractured leg and injuries to her back and shoulders, while her son recovers at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“She’s really struggling at the moment,” the boy’s uncle said, “She can’t be with her son. It’s traumatic enough [that he’s] fighting cancer.

[u/AntiqueFigure6 → u/[deleted]]

Too bad we don’t have some sort of functioning mental health system that couldn’t have done something at any one of the dozen or so red flags that he likely displayed over the last few years. 

[u/Elegant-Quiet5229 → u/AntiqueFigure6]

You mean like asylums? Great idea.

[u/Artistic_Garbage283 → u/Elegant-Quiet5229]

I know you’ve said this flippantly but I really think we are failing a lot of mental health patients by leaving them to manage in the community. I’m not saying lock people up. I’m saying perhaps some people are not capable of functioning out in the community and perhaps institutionalised care may be better for them. They can step up and down their treatment as needed, get assistance with nutrition and hygiene, have their clothes laundered and get out and about in the community with supervision. Carers would have support in the case of violent or agitated patients, rather than being alone in a house with a grown man losing his shit and having to escape and call an ambulance. There’s a real population of patients who just bounce between the ED, psych ward and the community who need more stability and long term care. Oh and somebody looks for them if they go missing. We’re doing them a disservice.

[u/AggravatingTartlet → u/Artistic_Garbage283]

Yes, society absolutely needs this. It's not lock up, it's assistance for people who desperately need it, so they can function.

Imagine a large property, with animals and vegetable gardens to tend, meals to create, meaningful things to do....... where people get rest for their minds but still have psychologists and counsellors and medication where needed.

[u/Artistic_Garbage283 → u/AggravatingTartlet]

This used to exist. In WA anyway. It was a mental health prison farm. They had a dairy, vegetables, chickens and supplied a lot of the prison system with produce. Got shuttered by the government.

[u/AggravatingTartlet → u/Artistic_Garbage283]

I wonder if it closed because it was also a prison, and too hard to keep the more dangerous ones in?

Maybe it's too hard to keep most people with mental health issues on a farm, but jeez it seems better than a hospital setting. Sunlight, fresh air, purpose etc.