Daughter blames lack of beds for death of her mentally ill mother

Stephanie Daniels, hanged herself in 2012 after an eight-day delay in being admitted to hospital

• Hundreds of mental health patients died after NHS care failures
  

In 2012, Stephanie Daniels took her own life aged 32. Stephanie had a history of mental illness and drug abuse. From 2004 until her death, Daniels spent long periods in hospital in Manchester, both voluntarily and sectioned. In the month before she died, Daniels said she was feeling increasingly suicidal. By mid March, clinicians decided she needed urgent inpatient admission, but no beds were available. She was eventually found a place on the Safire short stay assessment unit in the grounds of North Manchester general hospital, run by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.

“Stephanie had been asking to go into hospital for a couple of weeks,” says Janet Daniels, Stephanie’s mother. “When she was finally admitted, she was never assessed by a doctor. If they had assessed her, they would have realised that she needed to be put on 1:1 watch.”

Related: Hundreds of mental health patients died after NHS care failures

Continue reading... March 07, 2018 at 12:25AM