Families condemn 'predictable' mental health failures

Bereaved families say inquest findings for deaths involving a group of mental health services have become predictable.

Relatives of people who died while in Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT) care spoke out after a coroner found Amy Chapman took her own life following "neglect" on a specialist unit.

SPFT Bereaved Families Unite said families "have got to a point where outcomes and findings of these inquests are utterly predictable".

Mandy Stevens, chief nursing officer at SPFT, said the trust recognised the concerns raised at Chapman's inquest and that it needed to "more consistently" listen to people.

Chapman died on 27 March 2025 while she was a patient at the Haven Unit at Millview Hospital, Brighton.

The mother-of-one was deemed to be at high risk of suicide, but she was allowed out unaccompanied on two separate occasions.

On the second occasion she took her own life.

The 35-year-old, described by her family as "beautiful, clever and funny", was at her most vulnerable but there was an "absence of basic care" at the unit, according to the coroner.

The trust apologised and said it did "not fully assess Amy's risk or involve her family adequately" after the inquest concluded in May.

Stevens said the trust needed "to avoid being defensive when people raise concerns" but was "making progress".

Shelagh Sheldrick, a member of SPFT Bereaved Families Unite, said families "hear statements from SPFT that changes have been made" but had not had "personal reassurances that our loved ones' death has led to any positive change".

Her child, 29-year-old Matty Sheldrick, took their own life in 2022, with a coroner finding a lack of psychiatric beds and a 26-day stay in an emergency department contributed to their death.

"Clearly the evidence shows that this poor practice still continues and lives are being lost," Shelagh Sheldrick said.

According to relatives of Morgan Bletchley - a mother who took her own life at Meadowfield Hospital, Worthing, in 2023 - the group was "seeking accountability for the deaths of our beloveds".

Louise Hodgson, Morgan's mother-in-law, and Tanya Bletchley, her mother, said they were "also seeking real reflection and a true understanding of how broken the culture of healing is at this trust".

"We have been consistently batted away and gas-lit in our efforts to achieve this," they said.

Chapman's family previously said they believed their relative's death was "entirely preventable" and welcomed the coroner's findings of neglect.

If you've been affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

Additional reporting by PA Media

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