How can you help a friend who is struggling with mental health?If you are someone struggling with mental health problems then it can be difficult to ask for professional help.
Even once you’ve asked, it might not be the standard you were expecting.
Doctors have told the BBC that children with mental health problems are not getting treatment until they are in crisis and, sometimes, suicidal.
A letter leaked to Panorama reveals at least one area’s child and adolescent mental health service (Camhs) is rationing care.
Of course, many people will go to their friends or family first but that can also be a big step.
If you think one of your friends is dealing with a mental illness, Newsbeat has been getting some advice on how you could help them.
Laura Nuttall was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorderIt comes from 28-year-old Laura Nuttall, from Lincolnshire, who has struggled with mental illness since she was 14.
She spent years in hospital and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
“Trying to be there at appointments and making sure they’re getting the help they need can be really valuable.
“Try to be there for them as much as possible to help them feel a little bit less alone,” says Laura.
“Remember that you are not invincible so they will need to access professional support. Encouraging them to see a GP would be a great stepping stone into the services.”
Laura went to Downing Street to petition for equal funding for physical and mental healthLaura now has a psychology degree and has recently qualified as a mental health nurse.
She adds: “I think it’s crucial for people who are struggling with mental illness to realise it’s not their fault and a massive way of achieving this is for their friends to stay in contact.
“Don’t change the way you interact with them too much,” she says.
Young Minds is one of the charities which offers advice if you’re unhappy with the standard of the mental health treatment you’re getting.
For help and support on mental health visit the BBC Advice pages.
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Link to BBC article here
Every day in Scotland, an average of two people die from suicide.
It is the leading cause of death among people aged 20-34 in the UK – with the rate considerably higher among men.
Sadly, it’s an issue all too familiar to many in Dundee – so much so that it’s led to intense scrutiny of local mental health services and an inquiry being launched. All last week, events were held to highlight the issue for Suicide Prevention Week. As part of that, the Tele has spoken to four people who have attempted to take their own lives, about their experiences and how they came through them.
They’re all members of the Blue Wings group, set up in Dundee by Robbie Russell after his frustration grew at the “underfunded” mental health services on offer in Tayside.
The group previously led calls for patrols to be introduced to the Tay Road Bridge, following a number of incidents involving people contemplating suicide or taking their lives on the crossing.
Dave Johnston, 43, from Claverhouse, became aware of suicide in a previous workplace.
He said: “Part of my day-to-day work involves taxying when my other operation is out of season so I quite regularly meet people in the taxis who experience mental health problems and suicidal tendencies. My own personal belief is that people are let down by the system.
“Right now if someone goes up to Carseview, they’ll be turned away on the vast majority of occasions without any treatment at all.”
Although the issue is common throughout Tayside, Dave said he has seen people around him being afraid to admit their dark thoughts to the authorities, calling for more effort to bring understanding to the system.
Dave said: “I’ve got experience from speaking to somebody very recently who had attempted their own life and were taken to Carseview.
“They were taken overnight and their only experience the next morning was that a police surgeon spoke to them and asked if they still felt suicidal. Nobody in their right mind would say yes because they don’t want to be kept in police custody and they were released that morning.”
He said including people who have experienced suicide themselves is needed in the system.
He said: “The folk that deal with these issues day in and day out may have ideas about it but perhaps the best people to talk to them and give them advice are the people that are suffering from the problems themselves.
“We still live in a very macho environment where it’s seen as a weakness to speak about these types of things. It’s not a weakness, it’s an illness.”
Robbie Russell, 28, from Arbroath, said he became angry and lonely during his teenage years, eventually attempting suicide at age 16 for the first time.
He said: “I was fine when I was younger, but when I got to my teenage years, I was quite angry.
“I was seen as a bad kid.
“I was never recognised as someone with mental health issues. It followed me into my late teens – I started getting arrested and turned to drugs as a shield to get out of it but it didn’t work.”
Robbie said he struggled to open up about the way he was feeling.
He added: “It was instilled into me about pride. You’re a man, you’re not really supposed to have feelings.
“That’s not the case – we’re all human and everyone feels an emotion and everyone should be allowed to express it.
“The first person I told was my mum. She’s always been my rock, I have always been a bit of a mummy’s boy. She has talked me out of a lot of situations.”
At his most vulnerable, Robbie started hiding under his bed and felt like he was not being taken seriously.
“I was let down by the system. Back then, there was far too much ignorance – everyone was just playing you off like you’re an attention-seeker,” he said.
Robbie later founded the Blue Wings group to help others who were feeling suicidal with the hope of developing the Facebook group into a charity.
“I started getting a lot better and opening up a lot more than I used to,” he said.
“I started accepting things a lot more.”
Aged 13, Tina Grant, from Douglas, tried to take her own life for the first time. She said she would do anything to get the pain she was feeling out of her head.
Tina said: “I felt dead for such a long time. I tried to do pills, slit my wrists, drink, everything.
“I didn’t know how to deal with it all so I thought that was the only way to do it.
“When you’re in a dark place and have so many bad things going on in your life, you just want to escape it.”
Tina, now 35, went through her suicide attempts for two years before telling her mum.
She said: “I hid it from my mum and stepdad for a long time and when they actually saw the razor on my wrists, that is when they got the help for me when I was about 15.
“I never really had anyone to talk to and speaking to someone is such a helpful tool.”
Although Tina admits she has not fully recovered from feelings of suicide, she is able to face the day more easily after opening up to other people.
She said: “I still deal with it now but I’m dealing with it a lot better because instead of turning to drink, I talk to my friends and family and that makes me feel so much better.
“It was like a weight had been lifted off me and I felt like a new person.
“I felt happier, freer and alive.”
Now, Tina is looking to get into care work and help others who are feeling suicidal.
She said: “If nobody knows of the groups available to you, go online and talk to people – it’s the best thing to do. Nobody is alone.”
Gavin Elliot, 20, from Broughty Ferry, has been on the edge of the Tay Road Bridge three times and still feels like he has not overcome his suicidal thoughts.
He said: “I was in care since I was about seven. Life was tough from the beginning.
“I tried multiple times to kill myself – whether it was sticking scissors to my throat, jumping off the bridge, trying to hang myself, trying to suffocate myself.
“Anything that I could try, I tried it because I thought the only way out was to end myself.”
He added: “Last time I tried was two years ago when my father passed away.
“I was at the edge of the Tay Road Bridge on the other side of the barrier when police came and they pulled me away.”
Gavin said he kept himself hidden from the world and only started talking to others when his support workers noticed.
He said: “Every day I’d wake up in the morning and think, why? What’s the point in me waking up when it is the same old routine every day? I would spend months on end in my house alone with no visitors – no physical contact, nothing. I sat alone and blocked everyone out.”
After ending up on the bridge, he was taken to Dundee’s Carseview mental health facility but said he did not receive much support.
“People at Carseview would look at me, say I was OK and send me home without any treatment whatsoever,” he claimed.
To get his life back on track, Gavin said he turned to BMXing which has helped him through his difficulties.
Link to Tele article here
After just two years in the job a Scots nurse will this month quit her hospital post because she says staff “are on their knees”
Susan, a mum in her 40s, can no longer cope with the pressure-cooker atmosphere in wards where mentally ill patients are placed alongside the terminally ill receiving palliative care.
“We are getting a lot of patients in acute general wards who are unsuitable. They are more suited to psychiatric wards but the trouble is they have cut beds.
“I have been punched and pushed about and you get verbal aggression towards you. I was punched when I hadn’t long started.
“They throw anything that is at hand. They pick up chairs and try to throw them. When I was last on shift, there were seven out of 24 patients on my ward with mental health issues, two of them violent.”
She said clinical support workers are assigned to violent patients but if their condition gets too bad, a mental health nurse has to be brought in – usually from an agency – costing up to £2000 per patient per day.
She claimed some mental health patients are in general wards for ages waiting for appropriate places.
She said: “On my last shift, we had three who had been there from three months to a year. They are medically fit but can’t just be discharged.
“They are alongside palliative patients, who are not getting the dignity, peace and quiet to die in peace. The nurses and doctors try their best to accommodate everybody but the NHSis in crisis.”
And while she remains “passionate” about the work she does, Susan can no longer handle the responsibilities.
She has witnessed mistakes made with medication because of the inexperience of newly qualified staff.
She said: “I have seen medication errors being made with drugs you have to sign out, like morphine-based ones or stronger analgesia.
“If it’s two new nurses working on shift together, which shouldn’t happen but it does, they don’t have the experience to know the differences between quick acting and long acting drugs and it is very easy to get them mixed up. Some mistakes have been quite serious but they have managed to get to them in time.”
But she said drug runs are constantly interrupted.
She said: “We used to wear a red tabard which said, ‘Do not disturb – drug round in progress’ but they took them away because the tabards weren’t getting washed so there were infection control concerns.
“Now there is nothing in place to say to a family member, ‘Please don’t interrupt this nurse doing her drug rounds’.”
Instead of working to an NHS contract, Susan will resign this month and take on nurse bank work where she will be able to pick her hours, won’t have to do overtime and will not be put in charge of a ward.
Susan, who works on a general medical ward, said after qualifying there wasn’t much support for new nurses. She added: “I was basically put in on my first shift, handed my keys and that was it. It was a case of sink or swim. I was lucky I was able to keep my head above water but there is an awful lot of pressure.
“The other nurses I worked alongside were absolutely amazing but they don’t have time to help newly qualified nurses so it was a struggle.”
There’s a new batch of nurses coming into hospitals soon and some will go where there are shortages.
One ward is to get five new nurses. But Susan said: “To me that is a safety issue because they don’t have the skill mix to put on the rota – where there are more skilled nurses working alongside the junior nurses to keep them right.
“Safety is a massive thing because a lot of nurses are leaving and just doing bank work and a lot of nurses are off with stress and anxiety.” Susan has had to make formal reports when she felt there were not enough staff to run the ward safely.
She said: “My ward has 24 patients. We have three staff nurses, that’s eight patients each to be responsible for, but it goes down to two at night so you have 12 patients each.
“But even eight patients is too much for the nurse in charge with all her other duties. We have to rely so heavily on clinical support workers. They see the patients more than the nurses do. It is soul destroying.”
Staff shortages are so great that nurses are encouraged to do extra hours as bank nurses to make up the shortfall. Susan explained: “We can work 40 hours a week on the bank and 37.5 hours on the ward so we can work up to 77 hours a week.
“We are not forced to do bank shifts but we are made to feel guilty if we don’t because you don’t want to let your colleagues down. You are shattered. But sometimes you have to take a step back and say, ‘I’m done’, you physically can’t do any more.”
She added: “Lots of nurses who qualified at the same time as me have already left or are planning to quit to go on bank. For me the pressure was so bad I had to quit for my own sanity.”
Theresa Fyffe, Royal College of Nursing Scotland director, said: “Sadly, this echoes what I hear from frontline nursing staff across Scotland.”
Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “We have a workforce crisis in our NHS. Unless we have adequate staffing more and more of our hard-working staff will walk away.”
Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton called Susan’s revelations “desperately troubling”.
He said: “We have long known about the crisis in our workforce but the depth of that crisis is laid bare in these revelations.”
Frances Dodd, NHS Lanarkshire acute divisional nurse director, insisted: “The safety of staff and patients is of paramount importance. We have mandatory training for appropriate staff to enable them to manage challenging situations.
“Staff who work extra shifts through the staff bank, do so on a voluntary basis.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said they recognised “pressures in our nursing workforce” and said while there has been an increase of almost six per cent in the number of qualified nurses, they were determined to “go further to ensure a sustainable nursing workforce long into the future.”
Link to Daily Record article here
A WHISTLEBLOWER’S champion at a scandal-hit health board has quit claiming serious issues were being ignored.
He had been appointed the board’s whistleblowing champion – a role meant to ensure staff’s concerns were treated seriously – in April and was also chair of the board’s staff governance committee and a member of the audit and remuneration committees.
Yesterday, he told the Sunday Post: “I have decided to resign my position from NHS Tayside.
“I am on stress leave from this role. I have taken the decision not to return when my leave expires and I have notified the chairman.
“Certain matters were escalated to me that were serious and cause for concern. I, in turn, highlighted these issues to the chairman and others. I feel that I have not been given the appropriate assurances that these important matters are being dealt with. I have put the range of my concerns in writing to the cabinet secretary and the First Minister. I am still waiting on a reply.”
He refused to detail the issues he raised, but added: “I feel it’s serious but they are not taking it seriously.”
NHS Tayside confirmed Mr Hussain has resigned with effect from October 17, adding: “We can confirm that Mr Hussain raised concerns relating to one particular case and this is currently under investigation.”
He is one of three resignations from the board, also including the vice-chair Stephen Hay and Doug Cross, chair of the finance and resources committee. All three are members of the audit committee.
They have stood down after both the chief executive and chair left their posts after it emerged NHS Tayside had taken charitable donations to pay for an IT system.
NHS Tayside said: “Non-executive members of Tayside NHS Board Doug Cross, Stephen Hay and Munwar Hussain have decided to step down from the board and will leave over the next few weeks.”
The departures come as two reports into the financial scandals at NHS Tayside are expected to be published in the coming weeks.
The crisis at NHS Tayside emerged earlier this year when it was revealed more than £2 million had been taken from its endowment fund – made up of public donations and bequests from wills – to cover the costs of new IT systems in 2014.
Auditors also found accounts had been “misrepresented”, with a practice of using funds earmarked for e-health initiatives to offset general expenditure since 2012.
It led to the resignation of chair Professor John Connell in April after then Health Secretary Shona Robison took the unusual step of calling for him to step down.
Chief executive Lesley McLay was effectively removed from her post in the same month and left at the end of July after going off on sick leave.
The charity regulator OSCR launched an inquiry into the use of Tayside NHS Board’s endowment fund, which is expected to report by the end of September.
Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, Anas Sarwar MSP, said: “These resignations throw NHS Tayside into fresh turmoil, and members of the public will rightly want to know what caused half of the committee to dramatically resign.”
Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary, added: “NHS Tayside has been limping from one controversy to another, so both the timing and the nature of the resignations will raise questions.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Ministers are aware of these resignations and would like to thank those members for their contribution to NHS Tayside. Any issues raised around whistleblowing will be fully explored in accordance with existing NHS whistleblowing policy.”
Link to Sunday Post article here
A GP surgery has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the run-up to a Dundee dad taking his own life.
Lee Welsh was found dead at his Peddie Street home last August, aged 27.
His dad Phil complained to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) about Coldside Medical Practice, claiming GPs had failed to give Lee adequate care before his death.
He also complained that practice bosses had failed to respond to the family’s original complaint in a reasonable way.
The SPSO has now informed the family that neither of the two complaints were upheld.
The ombudsman said it appreciated there were difficulties in Lee’s case but concluded: “I am of the view that medical staff followed the relevant guidance and acted reasonably in light of the information available to them.
“I conclude that the standard of medical care and treatment provided to Lee was reasonable.”
Mr Welsh said: “We are very disappointed that the ombudsman found there was nothing to suggest that Lee was suicidal.
“On two occasions Lee told his GP he was going to crash his van into something in a bid to end his own life.
“A counsellor at his work also contacted Lee’s GP herself to tell him she was concerned he was suicidal.
“However, the ombudsman’s findings claim there were no details in Lee’s clinical records to suggest that urgent admission to a psychiatric unit was necessary.
“The findings added that history presented did not suggest that Lee was planning to harm himself and that the GP assessment was reasonable and they did not overlook any significant risk which could have prevented Lee’s suicide. I just don’t accept any of that.”
A spokesman for Coldside Medical Practice said it would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case.
Link to Evening Telegraph here
Changes to mental health services in Tayside could become the lasting legacy of those who have taken their own lives across the region, it has been claimed.
The independent inquiry into how NHS services are provided began taking submissions from members of the public last week.
Chairman David Strang said he hoped testimony – both positive and negative – would help improve treatment and support throughout the country.
The inquiry was ordered after a public campaign by families who blamed poor care at the Carseview Psychiatric Centre at Ninewells Hospital for a series of suicides.
Gillian Murray, whose uncle David Ramsay took his own life after being turned away by Carseview, has been at the forefront of the campaign for the inquiry and said it could be a chance for “real change”.
And she said it was vital that people with experiences of mental health services “stand up and be counted”.
She said: “This crisis has been on-going for over a decade and NHS Tayside have been aware of the failings but done nothing.
“If they were genuinely committed to change; it wouldn’t have taken for my uncle to lose his life and for me to campaign through to parliament, first at First Minister’s
Questions then the debate to get an inquiry.
“The same issues have been raised time and time again about NHS Tayside mental health.
No lessons have ever been learnt thus far. Lives have been lost and others shattered – this is a crisis that will have ripple effects felt down the years.”
Ms Murray said she remained angry about the lack of treatment given to her uncle.
“I will never forgive NHS Tayside, nor forget. I can only hope that real change happens as this is a living hell and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” she said.
“Each and every person needs to stand up and be counted by coming forward with testimonies and evidence to illustrate the scale of this crisis.
“Change needs to happen and those who have lost their lives should never be forgotten – this is their legacy.
“They may have been failed but their preventable deaths may prevent others suffering the same fate.”
Evidence can be submitted to the inquiry by emailing independentinquiry@dundee.ac.uk or by writing to Independent Inquiry, 15/16 Springfield, Dundee, DD1 4JE.
Link to Courier article here
SCOTLAND’S most senior civil servant has been commended for speaking about her personal experience of mental health problems.
Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans said she had worked through “several tough and very stressful episodes” in the past, and had seen a health professional at one point.
She shared the information with Scottish Government staff in a personal blog in July, and yesterday made it available publicly on the government’s website.
She said she wanted to help stamp out the stigma surrounding mental ill-health.
Ms Evans had been a low-key figure since being appointed Permanent Secretary in 2015.
But she was thrown into the public spotlight last month when it emerged she had investigated sexual misconduct allegations against Alex Salmond, and the former First Minister launched a legal action against her handling of the case.
Ms Evans did not identify her particular mental health experiences, but they are understood to predate her time in the civil service.
Nicola Sturgeon this week announced an extra £250m for mental health services, particularly those required by young people.
In her “Catch up with Perm Sec” blog on 2 July, Ms Evans included a section on mental health which stressed the importance of good mental health and wellbeing at work.
She wrote: “Last week I took part in an open and frank session at Victoria Quay [the government office in Edinburgh] which reflected on our mental health experiences as individuals, how this informs the culture of our organisation, and where we need to improve mental health and wellbeing support.
“Like many people I have worked my way through several tough and very stressful episodes. What helped me was the support of my line manager, on one occasion seeing a health professional, and the continuing support of my friends and family.
“We all have a role to play in stamping out stigma surrounding mental health and improving our workplace culture.”
Calum Irving, director of See Me, the Scottish campaign to end mental health stigma and discrimination, said: “I was fortunate to hear Leslie speak very passionately about mental health at work and to share her own experience. It is a very challenging thing to do but can have a profound effect, especially coming from people in leadership positions.
“Workplace discrimination because of mental ill health is sadly still commonplace and it prevents people from being treated equally. So concerted action from senior leaders is very much needed, to ensure that we can all live fulfilled lives.”
In recent years, a series of politicians and public figures, including MPs and Prince Harry, have spoken about their experience of mental health.
But Scottish LibDem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said it was rare for officials to do likewise.
He said: “This is very brave of Leslie and hopefully will give courage to others to come forward and talk about things they might have been going through.
“We often think of the civil service as quite severe and dry place to work. It’s really significant that the most senior civil servant in the land has paved the way for this traditionally quite conservative profession to open up about mental health and I commend her for it.”
Ms Evans is being taken to court by Mr Salmond over her handling of two complaints made against him in January which relate to his time as first minister in 2013.
He is challenging the investigatory process through a judicial review at the Court of Session, drawing on a £100,000 war chest funded by a controversial online appeal.
Ms Evans also referred to Mr Salmond’s case in her blog of 27 August.
She said: “You will appreciate that for legal reasons I am unable to say anything further at this point, but I can assure you that the Scottish Government will defend its position vigorously. I shall update you as and when I can.
“In line with work already underway to tackle inappropriate behaviour, and in consultation with our trade unions, we are carefully considering any issues about culture and working practices.”
Link to The Herald article here
Scotland still has the worst suicide rate in Britain – despite long-term improvements from a record high.
Official figures yesterday revealed 13.9 deaths for every 100,000 people in Scotland last year, compared with 9.2 in England.
The SNP had been under pressure to tackle the country’s suicide rates after a previous strategy lapsed.
Scottish Lib Dem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “The high rate of suicides in Scotland, especially among young men, is devastating. The SNP dawdled for 586 days before introducing a suicide prevention strategy after the last one expired. That means for 2017 there was no strategy. That is unforgivable.
“The Government must make improving mental health services and access to them a top priority.”
In Scotland, the rate has fallen from 17.5 deaths for every 100,000 people when records began in 1981. The rates in Wales fluctuated from year to year but experts said there has been no apparent downward trend over time. Northern Ireland, where figures have been the worst in the UK, was not included in the latest Office for National Statistics report.
The figures differ from earlier Scottish official figures, which suggested a rate of 12.5 for 2017, because of a different approach to ages and definitions.The Samaritans charity warned in May that the Scottish Government had not treated suicide as top priority.
Last month, Glasgow North Labour MP Paul Sweeney warned suicide is a “ticking time bomb” in the forces as the Daily Record revealed Ryan Smith had become the sixth soldier to take his own life in just over a week.
Link to Daily Record article here
An inquiry was initially ordered into Dundee’s Carseview CentreAn independent inquiry into NHS Tayside’s mental health services has been launched with an appeal for personal testimonies.
Anyone who has engaged with mental health services in the region has been urged to share their experiences.
It has asked for individuals, families, carers, NHS staff and community groups to come forward.
The call for evidence follows three months of preparation including the appointment of chairman David Strang.
An investigation was initially ordered into Dundee’s Carseview Centre but was expanded following a campaign by families of people who took their own lives.
The inquiry is expected to review safety, care standards and access to mental health services.
Mr Strang said: “I am keen to hear from a wide range of people with experience of mental health services in Tayside and will welcome all contributions to the inquiry.”
The inquiry said that all evidence, including both bad and good experiences, would be used to “guide the focus of the inquiry team in their work in the coming months”.
Link to BBC Article here
MEDICS failed to help a suicidal man who contacted health services eight times in six days before he died, his partner has claimed.
Luke Henderson’s girlfriend Karen McKeown is now calling for an urgent review of mental health support services for men in Scotland.
Karen tried to get help for Luke almost every day in the week before his death.
Despite phoning NHS24, going to A&E, contacting GPs and other community services on eight different occasions, the couple were either turned away, referred elsewhere or told that Luke showed no signs of mental health problems.
NHS Lanarkshire’s initial review said their staff had followed procedure and “consistently did not find any evidence” that Luke wanted to take his own life. However, they have now launched a fresh investigation.
Luke spoke to at least 11 different NHS employees between December 22 and December 28 last year. Karen found him hanging in the home they shared with their two children on December 29.
The 30-year-old’s calls for better men’s mental health services has been backed by her MSP, Monica Lennon, who has urged NHS bosses to further investigate.
Karen knew something was wrong with Luke when he started saying colleagues at his construction job were spying on and filming him, putting videos on the internet and laughing at him.
He had stopped sleeping, said he could hear voices in his head and could see things which weren’t there.
Karen, from Motherwell, said: “If they had done their jobs as medical professionals, the way I did mine as his partner and mother of his children, I believe Luke would still be here. My children would still have their dad.
“They failed him. I felt like he was planning to take his own life.
“There were loads of warning signs – he was asking my cousin to look after me if anything happened to him, he was telling me how much he loved me and kept saying sorry for things.
“I told doctors this, but they wouldn’t listen.”
In a review conducted by NHS Lanarkshire, officials ruled that they had followed procedures and their staff found no signs of mental illness, nor believed Luke was at risk of suicide.
However, medical notes from December 23, seen by The Sunday Post, show some staff who first saw Luke at Wishaw General A&E thought he was at risk of harming himself and that he was hallucinating.
They recorded in their notes that Luke was “hearing voices in head…feels wants to kill self”, “experiencing delusions” and was “an immediate risk to himself”.
When he first went to the emergency unit, he was categorised as a high-risk patient, but less than two hours later after being seen by a nurse, it was ruled that he showed no signs of having a “depressive illness or psychotic disturbance”.Medical staff decided that, because Luke said he was looking forward to Christmas, he was making plans for the future and was not suicidal.
Karen said: “Christmas was less than two days away by that point, it didn’t mean he was ‘forward planning’ as they said.
“I kept telling them he wasn’t making any plans after Christmas.
“On Christmas Eve I had to take him to see a psychiatric nurse, but they wouldn’t do anything. They told us to go to an addiction service, which re-opened on the 28th.”
Toxicology reports showed there were no traces of alcohol or drugs in Luke’s body when he died. He had suffered addiction issues in the past.
In 2011, Luke attempted to take his own life and in 2015 admitted himself into hospital as he was hearing voices.
After being an in-patient for a week, he was given medication to help him.
Karen said: “We got through Christmas Day and Luke made it all about us, and the four of us being together. That day he managed to sleep for the first time in a long while. He fell asleep on the couch but he was still not acting normally.”
Again, on December 27, the couple, along with some of Luke’s family members, went back to A&E after he continued to say he could hear voices and was seeing dogs in his house.
She said: “The staff didn’t speak to me or Luke’s family at all. They just spoke to Luke, and said nothing was wrong and he wasn’t showing signs of being mentally unwell.
“The next day I took him to the addiction services they told us about, but it was just a form-filling exercise and they didn’t give us any help.
“They said we would have to wait for someone to get in touch at a later date.”
On the day before his death, Karen took Luke to two GPs to try to get him an urgent appointment, before taking him to her own doctor and registering him there.
The couple were told an appointment was available that afternoon, but when they returned a second receptionist said there had been a mistake and they were sent home.
That night, Karen woke to her eight-year-old son, also named Luke, crying. She saw that her partner was not in bed and when she went to her son’s room she discovered he was awake.
Karen said: “I asked him why he was awake and he said that daddy had come in to say goodnight. That’s when I went downstairs and saw Luke’s body. I just started screaming.”
Iain Mackenzie, acting general manager for mental health services, said: “We are aware of this tragic matter and undertook a review in line with Health Improvement Scotland guidelines, which aims to identify any learning points.
“Members of our patient affairs team have also subsequently met with Ms McKeown with a view to further investigate the issues raised by her, and the team is also liaising with the other services involved.
“The investigation is still ongoing and, once complete, we will share the findings with Ms McKeown.”
In the last five years, more than 2,600 men have taken their own lives in Scotland, with more than 500 dying last year.
MSP Monica Lennon says too many people dealing with mental health problems, alcohol or drug issues are falling through the net, and is continuing to call for an investigation into why Luke was failed.
She said: “Luke’s tragic death is a painful loss to his family and Karen is one of the bravest people I have met. Asking for help should guarantee access to medical treatment but when it comes to addiction and mental health, vulnerable people too often are left to fall through the cracks.
“Nothing will bring Luke back but Karen is courageously drawing on her family’s experience to prevent others having doors closed in their faces. Karen continues to have my full support.
“Vulnerable people are being failed because people with lived experience are not being listened to.”
Link to Sunday Post article here