Julian Hendy set up Making Families Count in 2014 together with Julie Kerry, who was then Assistant Director of Nursing and Regional Mental Health Homicide Lead for NHS England South. Julian is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. In 2007, Julian’s father, Philip, was murdered by a mental health patient with a psychotic illness cared for by Avon and Wiltshire Partnership NHS Trust.
In 2010 Julian made a film for BBC2, which explored what had happened to his father (and others) and questioned why many mental health services appear unable to learn effective lessons from such homicides.
He went on to establish the Hundred Families charity, which supports and advocates for families after Mental Health Homicides and works with the NHS and others to embed effective learning and prevent further avoidable deaths. Julian is a lay member of the NHS Independent Investigations Governance Committee, NHS South’s Independent Investigations Review Group, and sits on the ministerial advisory panel for victims at the Ministry of Justice. He’s also an advisor to the Welsh and Scottish Governments on victim engagement following mental health homicides.