Bereaved mothers call for urgent action to fix mental health services
Professor Phil Scraton also backed the families during the meeting hosted by New Script for Mental Health, a grassroots mental health rights movement.
Professor Phil Scraton, Melanie Leahy, Mary Gould, Kirsty Scott and Sara Boyce of New Script for Mental Health meet in Belfast on Tuesday. (Rebecca Black/PA)
Ms Leahy's son Matthew, 20, died in 2012 while a patient at a mental health facility, and described more than a decade of 'fighting for the truth'.
She said she has been in contact with the families from Northern Ireland for several months thanks to social media highlighting their campaign.
'What I need to say is whether you're a mum or a dad, you've got kids or you've got elderly parents, at some stage you're going to come across the mental health system, we're here and we've been failed by it,' she told the PA news agency.
'We're not standing here just to get some notoriety, we're here to try and change the system that is failing whether it is kids with special education needs (SEN), autism, ADHD.
'If whatever I am doing in the UK can make some change or a ripple over here then I am going to carry on.
'The system failed me in 2012, we're three bereaved mothers who are united, and there are 30,000 more behind us.
'We will somehow carry on and bring about the change that is needed, but it is hard and we need governments to stand up and the whole country needs to unite to bring about the changes.
'These mums ain't going anywhere, we've got so many angels behind us now that are pushing for this change.'
Ms Gould, a midwife from Ballymena welcomed the support, and the inclusion of a photo of her son Conall in a montage displayed at the Lampard Inquiry.
The 21-year-old died in 2017 during a struggle with mental health.
She described the standards of care within mental health as 'atrocious', and said she feels that those who speak out 'have our voices silenced by a system unwilling to acknowledge the breadth of this crisis'.
Ms Scott said they are determined to ensure lasting change.
Her son William was diagnosed at the age of 19 with autism after what she termed a '15-year battle' including misdiagnosis. He died of an accidental drugs overdose.
'There is not one lesson being learned, all the promises, all the inquiries you go through, people saying sorry, not one word has meant anything because nothing has changed, if anything the mental health system in this country has got worse,' she said.
'I have battled for the last 12 years since my son died, and I can honestly say it has got worse.'
She added: 'My story was a perfect storm, but the problem is my perfect storm is also a lot of other people's story because there are too many perfect storms waiting to happen.'
Campaign organiser Sara Boyce said Northern Ireland families look forward to learning from the hard-won experience of the Essex campaigners and believe those lessons must be urgently applied here.
'Families involved in New Script are united in their desire to ensure that the harm and loss they experienced because of health service failures should never happen to other families,' she said.
'Yet the sad reality is that lessons are not being learnt.
'First hand experiences of families, coupled with multiple investigations, inquiries, and reviews, all point to the abject failure of the Health and Social Care Service (HSC) leadership to learn from their mistakes and implement changes recommended.'
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Glasgow Times
10 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike
A five-day walkout by resident doctors in England is under way, with members of the British Medical Association (BMA) manning picket lines across the country. The Health Secretary condemned the strike as 'reckless' and said the Government would not allow the BMA to 'hold the country to ransom'. Asked about the risk of patient harm, he told the PA news agency on Friday: 'I'm really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff have prepared and mobilised to minimise the disruption and minimise the risk of harm to patients. 'We've seen an extraordinary response, including people cancelling their leave, turning up for work, and resident doctors themselves ignoring their union to be there for patients. I'm extremely grateful to all of them. Resident doctors are beginning a five-day strike (James Manning/PA) 'What I can't do today is guarantee that there will be no disruption and that there is no risk of harm to patients. 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We can't just focus on that small subset of care. 'Colleagues in the service have tried to keep as much going as humanly possible as well, and the early signs are that that's been achieved so far, but it is early doors. 'In the end, capacity will have to be constrained by the numbers of people we've actually got who do just turn up for work, and what that means in terms of safe provision, because the thing that colleagues won't compromise is safety in the actual delivery. But it does look like people have really heard that. 'They're really pulling together to maximise the range of services possible.' Asked about further strikes, he said: 'It is possible. I would hope not. I would hope after this, we'll be able to get people in a room and resolve the issue. 'But if we are in this with a six month mandate, we could be doing this once a month for the next next six months, but we've got to organise ourselves accordingly.' The Prime Minister has said the strikes will 'cause real damage' (PA) Asked why he was not willing to bump pay from what the BMA calculates is £18 an hour to £22 per hour, Mr Streeting told broadcasters: 'I think the public can see, and other NHS staff can see the willingness this Government showed from day one coming into office to try and deal with what had been over a decade of failure on behalf of the previous government, working with resident doctors to improve their pay and to improve the NHS. 'That's why resident doctors had a 28.9% pay award, and that's why the disruption they are inflicting on the country is so unnecessary and so irresponsible.' He said patients, particularly those who end up waiting a long time for care due to strikes, 'do come to harm, and however much the BMA try and sugarcoat it, what they are fundamentally doing today is forgetting the three words that should be at the forefront of every doctor's minds every day, which is, 'do no harm'.' On whether strikes are going to become the 'new normal', he added: 'As I've said before, the BMA have had a 28.9% pay award from this Government, and we were willing to go further to help on some of the working conditions that doctors face. 'That offer of joint working, that partnership approach, that hasn't gone away, but it does take two to tango, and I hope that the BMA will reflect very carefully on the disruption they are inflicting on patients, the pressures they're putting on their colleagues, and the circumstances in which they are doing so – a 28.9% pay rise and a government that was willing to work with them. 'Those are not grounds for strike action.' It comes after Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. He added: 'Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage… 'These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery.' The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has fallen by around 20% since 2008, and is pushing for full 'pay restoration'. The union took out national newspaper adverts on Friday, saying it wanted to 'make clear that while a newly qualified doctor's assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour'. BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the union had been expecting more pay for doctors. He said: 'Where we were last year when we started the pay campaign, we were down a third on our pay compared to 2008. 'So you've got last year's pay offer which did indeed move us towards (pay restoration), but Wes Streeting himself said that pay restoration is a journey, not an event, implying that there would be further pay restoration to come, and we were expecting our pay to be restored in full – that's our campaign's goal. 'We got part way there, but then that came to a halt this year – we've only had an offer that brings us up, just to catch up with inflation.' Asked what it would take for doctors to go back to work, he said the BMA needed to see 'a clear, guaranteed pathway' to pay restoration. He added that 'it's very disappointing to see a Labour Government taking such a hard line against trade unions'. Resident doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and can have up to nine years of working experience as a hospital doctor, depending on their specialty, or up to five years of working and gaining experience to become a GP.
Glasgow Times
10 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Striking doctors tell of ‘poor pay' and difficult working conditions
Resident doctor Kelly Johnson said Health Secretary Wes Streeting's opposition to the strikes felt like 'a slap in the face'. Speaking outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, where she works, she told the PA news agency: 'Every union has the right to strike. It feels like a slap in the face to say that we are doing something that is unjust. 'Just because we're doctors doesn't mean we can't come out and strike and protest for what we think is right. 'When doctors decide to take strike action it's always portrayed as though we're being selfish, but we're here as a body to help the public day in, day out, to work hours that don't even end sometimes. 'Here we are just trying to get what's right for us so we can do our best to serve the public.' Around 30 doctors and supporters gathered outside Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) on Friday morning, waving placards and cheering as passing cars beeped horns in support. Cristina Costache, who is a paediatrics registrar at LGI and a PhD student, said: 'It's a very difficult decision to make always, because I love my job and that's the reason I went into it. I get depressed if I'm not in work. My heart is always at work. 'But I also care about my colleagues and my profession. 'I'm seeing more and more gaps as registrars. There's always a gap on the paediatric registrar rota. We end up having to cover the job of another paediatric registrar, of even two other paediatric registrars. A picket line outside Leeds General Infirmary as resident doctors stage a strike (Dave Higgens/PA) 'My SHOs (senior house officers) also have gaps, so I sometimes have to cover their job as well as my registrar job. That's not safe and that's not okay. 'The reason that happens is that they're poorly paid. If you're poorly paid, why would you want to come in on your free time when you know you're going to be on nights the next day and then so three or four nights in a row?' Dr Costache said she left Romania due to the poor health infrastructure and lack of investment. She said: 'It's really sad to have seen in the last nine years, since being here, how the NHS is heading that way. Hence, I'm a trade unionist because I feel like I want to tell people, please don't do what has happened there. 'It can be really scary and really bad, and you don't want to be in that place.' Dave Bell, a retired nurse and member of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, stood in solidarity with striking doctors outside St Thomas' Hospital. 'Britain's doctors are the backbone of our NHS,' he said. 'If you ask anyone who's been to a hospital, they'll tell you those staff work their socks off.' He called for urgent 'pay restoration', adding: 'We need to value those doctors and restore their pay to what it was 15 years ago.' But he acknowledged the difficulty of strike action within NHS teams. 'I took strike action once when I was a nurse – of course it causes tensions. You're working hard, and if medical staff walk out, it gets even harder for those still in.' Despite this, he said unity is crucial, adding: 'In the long run, people have got to work together – the unions too. It can be overcome.' Some patients at St Thomas' Hospital voiced their support for the doctors. Jo Irwin, 72, who was attending the London hospital for a blood test before surgery for a hernia, said she had 'no hesitation' in backing the walkout. 'I am fully behind the strikes and the public should be as well,' she said. 'Without these doctors I would be dead. They are looking after sick people. I am very angry about it. 'They should get all the money they want and more than (Prime Minister Sir) Keir Starmer and his cronies.' Mohammed Dinee, 42, from Brixton, also backed the industrial action after being admitted recently with back pain. 'Today I had a physiotherapy appointment, it was fine, no complaints,' he said. 'But I got admitted the other day for back pain – you could feel it. It was difficult to get an MRI scan. 'They're strained, being inside St Thomas' you can see it. I fully support them.' Speaking outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Dr Fareed Al-Qusous, 26, a year three academic foundation doctor, said resident doctors had 'the most severe pay erosion compared to all the other sectors'. 'The private sector's pay has caught up with 2008 levels, the finance sector has gone up by 4%, whereas doctors' pay has gone down by 21%,' he said. 'We want to be realistic about things, we want to be pragmatic, we don't want it all in one year, we don't want it over two years. 'We want a multi-year pay deal, a guarantee that pay will be restored.'
