"Poor Mental Health Care"

My son tried to commit suicide on the 19th of November 2018. He was admitted to ED at York General Hospital. He was seen initially by an ED Doctor and after various checks was passed over to two mental health clinicians. They spent roughly 15 minutes in a private room talking with him. They then came and spoke with us his parents and his partner. We explained that he had been suffering with severe depression and anxiety for some years and was on medication, and his health was getting worse. He had also started to drink heavily, he had been made redundant, and was about lose his house. To any sensible person all these signs were a combination for disaster, but not to the clinicians or other ED medical staff. The two clinicians came across as very laid back and their attitude was incredible "so what". They spent about 5 minutes with us and said they were going back to see my son and would be back. They left us in a side room. Within 5 minutes my son came through the door and said he had been discharged!! We were gobsmacked and tried to find the clinicians but they had vanished. My son had been given a piece of paper with various helpline phone numbers, but no referral or check up appointments. We had to take him home and spend a sleepless night watching over him. My opinion was that the 2 clinicians shift finished at 8pm and it was fast approaching 8.15 pm when they vanished. I later found out that they did finish at 8.0pm. For the next 6 weeks he went to see his doctor for his medication but was never referred to or given any mental health help. In January 2019 he committed suicide. At his inquest we were told by the Director of Nursing that Tees,Esk and Teeside Mental Health Trust had investigated the case and revealed areas for improvement. These improvements would be implemented as soon as possible.

I was amazed that they admitted there were areas for improvement. There are countless mental health guidelines in place. Every day there are literally dozens of suicides by YOUNG MEN. Guidelines say, if a male between the ages of 18 to 45, has a history of depression, anxiety, money issues, drink or drug issues, has attempted suicide, or self harms, these are the warning signs. If these signs are evident and identified by a medical or mental health expert then some action should be taken and not ignored as happened with my son.

I reported my complaint and detailed report to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman sent the complaint detail to Tees, Esk and Wearside for them to respond, this was back in January this year. As yet I have had no response and so I don't know if the new procedures are in place or not. The only conclusion that I can come up with looking at all the other reviews of this organisation is that nothing much has changed.