Rebecca Handcock acted for a local authority in an Article 2 inquest before a jury concerning the death of a 19-year-old woman, SR. SR absconded from psychiatric hospital and was found dead the following day.
SR had previously been a ‘looked after child’. As an adult, the local authority accommodated her in a supported living placement. She had diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia, PTSD, emotionally unstable personality disorder, borderline learning disability and a history of substance misuse.
Background to the inquest
In August 2021, the young woman was sectioned under the Mental Health Act on a general acute ward at a psychiatric hospital.
Subsequently she was told she was going to be moved to a locked rehabilitation unit.
Two days later, while escorted away from the hospital by a mental health nurse and care support worker to have a cigarette, she absconded.
She was found dead the next day with heroin and synthetic opioid toxicity.
At the inquest
The jury at the inquest considered:
• if how she was told about her impending move to a locked rehabilitation unit contributed to her death
• whether long-term rehabilitation plans should have been considered while she was in hospital earlier in the year
• the safety and security at the hospital
Jury’s conclusion
The jury concluded that:
- SR’s drug use was the probable cause of her death and that was contributed to by her mental ill health
- the local authority social workers did everything with their power to help SR – and said they went ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty.
Since SR’s death, the NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a new child and adolescent mental health transition worker and established a dedicated central safeguarding team.