A prominent figure in the German psychiatric community, Euphrosyne Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, has expressed reservations about the introduction of a registry for mentally ill offenders. According to her, the discussion surrounding a central registry of people with mental health issues fosters prejudices and increases the fear of stigmatization among those affected.
The president of the German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology emphasized that the greater the fear of stigmatization, the lower the likelihood of people seeking early psychiatric or psychotherapeutic treatment. She pointed out that, even without a registry, psychiatrists and therapists can already take action if they receive indications that a patient poses a threat to themselves or others and can hospitalize or place a person in a facility against their will if necessary.
Gouzoulis-Mayfrank emphasized that people with mental health issues as a group are not more violent than those without such issues. She stressed that a person’s mental health status alone does not justify the assumption of a threat to others. Only specific mental health conditions, under certain conditions and if left untreated, may be associated with a higher risk of violent behavior, but even in individual cases, predicting such a risk is difficult or impossible.
The psychiatrist emphasized the importance of providing early, coordinated and intensive therapy to individuals who, without treatment, may pose a higher risk of violent behavior, including refugees.