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Worried about my sister and appalled by the lack of care sho...

Posted By didi

"Worried about my sister and appalled by the lack of care shown to her"

About: Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust / Adult mental health

(as a relative),

My sister has very bad depression. She spends all day in bed and cannot do her shopping, go out etc. She is very suicidal.

She is under the care of a CPN and a psychiatrist and informed them several months ago that her depression was getting worse. Her medication has just been increased - without anyone seeing her -and her next appointment to see anyone is in two months time. No one is monitoring her condition, no-one is even following the most basic of NICE guidelines which state that increases in medication should be monitored for a range of very good reasons.

I am absolutelutely disgusted that a severely depressed woman is left for two months without any contact from the so called caring professionals.

No wonder suicide rates are not dropping if this is the care that patients at risk of suicide get.

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Responses

Response from Caroline Hainsworth, Service Liaison Manager, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago
Caroline Hainsworth
Service Liaison Manager,
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 23/02/2010 at 09:44
Published on Care Opinion at 00:00

We are sorry to hear of the difficulties your sister is experiencing with her current care and treatment. I would urge you or your sister to contact her care team to let them know of your concerns. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (0845 602 4384) or the Complaints Team (01529 222266) who will be able to liaise directly with the care team on your behalf.

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Update posted by didi (a relative)

Thank you but I have moved my sister to the county where I live and we are getting help.

The headlines in the Lincolnshire press last week were that Lincoln has the highest suicide rate in the East Midlands. Would it not be possible to put some sort of policy in place to make sure that depressed patients are monitored regularly and not left for weeks without any appointment? I also feel very strongly that if a patients medication is changed someone should be monitoring whether the drug is working, has side effects etc etc. I hope by highlighting my sisters problems that you will make sure practice changes to prevent other patients being treated the way my sister was and maybe reduce the very high suicide rates in Lincolnshire.

Response from Caroline Hainsworth, Service Liaison Manager, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago
Caroline Hainsworth
Service Liaison Manager,
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 25/02/2010 at 09:14
Published on Care Opinion at 00:00

I am sorry that we have not had an opportunity to investigate your sister’s specific case to ensure that her individual needs are being met. We would expect the practice you describe regarding monitoring of medication to be in place however, we are unable to comment on this individual case without further information. I am happy to discuss this matter further with you to address these concerns and I can be contacted on 01529 222266 or, as previously stated, you may prefer to access the clinical team or GP direct or the PALS service.

Regarding the suicide rates reported in Lincolnshire, sadly not every case of suicide is known to LPFT, however, we fully acknowledge and support the need to work more closely with our service commissioners and primary care providers to improve on the early identification and support for people at risk of suicide.

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