Croydon mental health services 'ruined family' of young woman while she was unwell

It comes after an independent report ruled that she was put at “significant risk of harm” by several services in Croydon.

At one point Chelsea*, 23, was told she could only access treatment at the hospital where she witnessed the suicide of her best friend. 

She told the authors of a damning report if it was not for her parents, she would not be alive today.

She was also unable to access supported living accommodation after Croydon Council insisted her parents needed to formally make her homeless.

Her parents refused to do this as they knew it would badly impact her fragile mental health. 

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Health Service Ombudsman both found a catalogue of failures and ordered three South London public bodies to pay £12,750 compensation to the young woman and £1,500 to each of her parents. 

But Chelsea, who was adopted at 10-years-old, said the money and apology would not make up for the way she and her parents were treated.

She was sectioned as a young teenager and spent four years in and out of mental health units. 

Chelsea spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service with her dad Ben* at their home in Croydon.

It has been four years since they first complained about their treatment by Croydon Council,  South London and Maudsley (SLAM) NHS Trust and the NHS South West London Intergrated Care Board.

When Chelsea was a teenager, her suicidal thoughts were sometimes so bad her dad had to restrain her to stop her harming herself.

In these times of crisis, she said her family struggled to get help, claiming her mum once waited four hours for a call back from the mental health crisis line.

She said: “They ruined our family for a good while. I was going through a crisis and my parents were having to find the information.

"We were having such a bad parent-child relationship. They didn’t offer mum or dad fair support, there was just silence.

“There were times I didn’t need input, but the times that I did my parents or I had to ask and they weren’t having it.

"I don’t know how many people it takes to say this person is trying to kill themselves for them to do something?”

As a teenager she saw the suicide of her best friend at a ward run by the SLAM NHS trust.

Despite her parents telling the trust that it would be traumatic for Chelsea to go back to the location , the NHS trust referred her for treatment there anyway.

The ombudsman found the trust was at fault and caused distress to the family.

It also found that her parents were incorrectly told Chelsea she could not access other nationally-funded services they had suggested.

Chelsea said: “I told them at the beginning I didn’t want to go back there because of this horrendous thing that happened. I want [the services] to be less numb and not just look at the cost of things.

“I know things are expensive but I think all the services need to check that they are looking to help an individual stay alive. 

"The longer you leave people in these spiraling circles you are damaging them more before helping them out.”

She has since gone to college and has been offered a university place starting this September.

Ben said he has lost faith in the system after constantly having to fight for his daughter to get the treatment she was entitled to.

He said: “There were two realities, specifically about what the law said and what they were telling us. We know these services are under pressure but we were being given the wrong information.

“The psychiatric services and local authority were appalling, particularly the mental health adolescent psychiatric service. She was kept there until her 18th birthday when they transferred her to an acute psychiatric wards with adults. 

“There are a lot of people who are going through similar things who don’t know or don’t have the confidence to push these issues. Our experience was that you had to fight very hard for everything.”

The ombudsman said Chelsea should have left hospital with an aftercare package from the three organisations, but this didn’t happen.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said he was concerned Chelsea’s case is not unique and likely  happening to other people in the area.

He said: “The young woman in this case tells me she feels she has been cast adrift by the organisations who should have helped her, over many years.”

While Rob Behrens, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, urged the three organisations to learn from their mistakes which risked the woman’s long-term recovery and put pressure on her parents.

He said: “This young woman underwent a traumatic experience and the failures outlined in this case had a devastating impact on her and on her family.”

Nathalie Zacharias, director of therapies at South London and Maudsley, apologised for the “significant distress” caused and said she welcomed the findings of the report.

 She said: “We are committed to ensuring vulnerable people in our communities receive care and treatment in environments which are most suitable for their needs and we work closely with our partners to continuously improve how we organise and provide this care”

A Croydon Council spokesperson said: “This woman and her family did not receive the after care they needed and to which they were entitled, and we are sorry for letting them down on this occasion.

"All the care services involved are currently reviewing how to work together more effectively to make sure we are supporting our clients in the best way we can.”

A spokesperson for the NHS in South West London said: “Our priority is to provide the best care possible for Croydon residents – we accept recommendations made in the report and apologise for the distress that this must have caused both Miss X and her family.

“We have since worked with local health and care teams, Miss X, her parents and the ombudsman to ensure that her care plan clearly sets out support available for her.

"Work has also been undertaken to raise awareness around personal health budgets, improve the referral process and train staff, we remain fully committed to continue this work for the benefit of local people.”

*The names of the father and daughter interviewed have been changed to protect their identities.