Robert was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1994. In the early days of his illness Robert spent a lot of time in and out of every major hospital in Brisbane, and he escaped from them all at one time or another.
The only real care he received was from the staff at John Oxley Hospital where he was a patient for five years, purely because he couldn’t look after himself without proper care.
When he was released, he ended up in various boarding houses and hostels where apart from seeing a case manager once a week for medication, the rest of his care was left up to me his mother and as much as I loved him and would have done anything for him, sometimes it was all to hard and at times I had never felt so alone.
There needs to be a lot more help out there and not just for the person suffering the illness, but for the whole family.
‘ay Robert Rest In Peace’ now, as after twelve years of mental torture it all became too much for him and on January 9th 2006 he jumped from Victoria Bridge and drowned.
He will be missed terribly.
His Mother
