Bondi Junction stabbings: lack of mental health care ‘a problem that is fixable’, inquest told | Bondi Junction stabbings

Significant reform of the mental health sector is needed to keep people safe; The criminal investigation into the mass stabbing at Bondi Junction is said to be nearing its conclusion.

Joel Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others before he was shot dead by police inspector Amy Scott at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024.

In May, a five-week coroner’s inquest into seven deaths revealed how the “extremely ill” man from Queensland evaded the healthcare network and stopped taking medication for schizophrenia five years ago.

Cauchi, who was homeless at the time of the attack, developed an obsession with violence, knives and serial killers, and with some “basic planning” he carried out a mass stabbing similar to the one he searched for online.

Final statements were made in the New South Wales coroner’s court on Tuesday and senior counsel assisting the inquest, Dr. Peggy Dwyer SC asked: “Why did Joel Cauchi carry out the attack, how did it get so bad and were there opportunities to prevent him from falling into psychosis?”

Dwyer said there was a serious lack of community-based treatment and housing for seriously mentally ill people in both Queensland and NSW.

“It’s not a political statement to say we need significant investment in these areas to keep people safe,” he told the court.

In a striking example of the inadequacy of existing services, he said in 1991 there were approximately 1,150 short-stay beds in Sydney’s four main inner-city hostels. Homeless people could eat, sleep, and receive psychiatric care and advanced services in these hostels.

Today there were fewer than 300 temporary beds and free psychiatric care was available in only two areas in Sydney.

“This is a limited problem that can be fixed,” he said.

Dwyer said flaws in the mental health system date back to the 1960s, when institutionalization began and mental health policy and service delivery shifted away from mental hospitals and toward services provided in community settings.

He suggested NSW Health should act as the lead agency advising the government on the decline in mental health services and lead major reforms in the region.

“It is imperative that this results in action, not another report,” Dwyer said.

He said building housing for mentally ill homeless people would save money in the long run and reduce risk to society.

It is “not an exaggeration” to say that if these people could be accommodated it would ease the pressure on the police.

Dwyer said families of the dead had assisted in the “difficult” process of preparing written applications.