MENTAL health organisations have failed to acknowledge the risk of violence from a minority of people with severe mental illnesses, Mind charity’s chief has said.

Dr Sarah Hughes made her comments ahead of the closure of the inquiry into the Nottingham attacks in June 2023 when two 19-year-old students and a 65-year-old man were fatally stabbed by Valdo Calocane, suffering paranoid schizophrenia.

Dr Hughes told the Guardian that charities had shied away from addressing the risk of violence as it had increased stigma and harassment of people with mental health conditions.

Charities specialising in mental health had to become more comfortable with discussing the risk of violence that could exist from a minority of people with mental illnesses, she said.

Mind recently held a roundtable with experts in Westminster to discuss the role mental health services need to play to keep the public and patients safe.