India, April 11 -- Adolescence, Netflix's hit series, has shocked the world with its hard-hitting depiction of a 13-year-old boy, Jamie Miller, accused of murdering his classmate. Heather Stewart, a retired child and adolescent psychotherapist, who chaired the Association of Child Psychotherapists in the UK, is as shocked as most viewers. Except to her, the subject of the series is frighteningly close to home.

"We see a lot of potential violence in many of the young men we meet. I remember there was a young teenage boy who I flagged as dangerous in the [mental health] system. He left the area and was not part of the NHS care system, and then went on to commit a double murder," she recalls, adding "that the situation has gotten worse over...