‘The System Failed You’: Sons Of Late Nicholas Camilleri Open Up About Father’s 18-Year Mental Health Struggles
Content warning: this article includes references to mental illness and suicide
The sons of a Maltese man found dead after disappearing have opened up about the pain of losing their father – and what may have led to it.
In a status that received over 2,100 reactions and over 160 shares within hours, Malcolm Camilleri heartbreakingly recounts personal, positive anecdotes from good times shared with his father, Nicholas Camilleri.
Starting by saying “Mental health is no joke, yet our healthcare really is,” the son remembered how hard his father worked for the family, and how he was always there with good advice.
Saying “we’ve lost a great father,” he went on lament how the system had failed his dad.
“The system failed you, health professionals failed you. You needed medical treatment, and they stoped it without telling anyone. You needed monitoring from doctors, and they stopped that as well.”
“You thought the world had turned against you, that you had nothing left to live for when you don’t even realise just how beloved you were.”
“Rest in peace dad, we’ll remember you forever.”
Another son, Daniel Camilleri, went into detail about his father’s mental health struggles in an eye-opening interview with the Malta Independent‘s Albert Galea.
He explained how his father started acting strange around 18 years ago, exhibiting behaviour in line with paranoid schizophrenia. He sought help – but Daniel says his father was failed no less than four times by the country’s mental healthcare system.
He recounted some incidents – when his father would speak in gibberish, when he would bang his head against the wall, or even locking his sons into their room and nailing wooden planks across the door out of fear that someone was coming to hurt them.
“He used to believe that our mother was out to get him, that his food was being poisoned… there were times when we would have to eat the food before he does in order to prove that it wasn’t poisoned,” the son continued, shedding light on the meaning behind the cryptic last messages Nicholas had posted to Facebook that had raised alarm.
Nicholas was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent time in Mount Carmel. He spent 15 years being medicated and finding stability in his life – until he was taken off his medication last September.
Within three days of his medication routine changing, he had physically attacked his wife, stabbing her in the chest with a chisel after locking her in a basement.
He was sent to prison while his wife recovered in hospital – and his situation continued to deteriorate rapidly, until last week, when he went missing.
Daniel sensed something was up, and went to the Għajn Tuffieħa area where his dad was last seen. It was Daniel himself who found his father’s body in an abandoned building near an Għajn Tuffieħa campsite.
Since the death, two vigils have been called in the wake of this tragic loss. But for Daniel, Malcolm and their other brother and mother, they just hope their father has finally found peace.
“I forgive you for everything you did… you weren’t you. I know that you always loved us, and we did too. If only you knew how much we deeply loved you and wanted nothing but the best for you,” Daniel wrote. “If heaven exists, I hope that you’re finally at peace.”
If you or someone you know needs to talk about their mental health, please call national support service 179. Alternatively, visit www.kellimni.com; the Richmond Foundation’s OLLI.chat to get in touch online; or the Kif Int? website.
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