Olav talks to ABC NewsRadio about supported housing and crime prevention

Habilis founder and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Olav Nielssen spoke to Sarah Morice at ABC NewsRadio about continuity of care for the chronically mentally ill and its role in the prevention of violent incidents involving people with severe mental illness.

According to Olav, ‘on the whole mentally ill people aren’t a danger to the public,’ while describing the steps taken when people who abscond from hospital. But much more can be done, with a decline in the State’s shelter beds correlating directly with the number of mentally ill people sleeping in the open in inner city Sydney every night. As he points out, ‘it costs more in avoidable hospital admission, prison and other costs to neglect the homeless mentally ill than it does to house and care for them’. Listen to the full radio interview here, a short listen at just under four minutes.

Listen to the full ABC NewsRadio segment here (< 4 mins)