Sahara Care Blog > Mental Health > Charity raises concerns over reporting of deaths of youngsters in mental health units

Charity raises concerns over reporting of deaths of youngsters in mental health units

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The Government is being urged to investigate the under-reporting of the deaths of children and adolescents in mental health units.

Charity Inquest, which represents bereaved families, is demanding a statutory notification when such a death occurs.

Its research, to be highlighted by BBC’s Panorama, suggests that since 2010 at least nine youngsters died in England, while receiving in-patient psychiatric care.

This is a figure Health Minister Alistair Burt told Panorama he was unaware of. The Department of Health has since accepted there have been at least four deaths.

Inquest’s director, Deborah Coles, said: “My fear is there could be more deaths. Neither we nor the Department of Health know.”

Calling for statutory notification and an independent investigation when a child dies in a mental health unit, she added: “How on earth can we learn if we don’t know the true picture and circumstances? If a child died in prison an independent investigation follows automatically.

“There isn’t that independent scrutiny given to these deaths.”

Mr Burt said: “Panorama’s investigation has unearthed questions about record keeping and I’m seeking assurances from NHS England that they have the right processes in place for recording any such death and that lessons are learned.”

Inquest analysed the responses to 238 Freedom of Information requests to NHS Trusts, Private Providers, local Safeguarding Children Boards, local councils, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Care Quality Commission.

The NHS places nearly half of all its young psychiatric patients in private psychiatric units and these are not subject to FoI requests.

And the Care Quality Commission, cited by the the Department of Health as collecting accurate data, is only notified of the deaths of young people who have been committed to hospital or sectioned.

This omits the deaths of voluntary patients, who make up a large part of the hospital population.

Ms Coles said: “What’s been really shocking is how difficult it is to find the true picture of the number of children dying in psychiatric care.”

BBC Panorama will air today (Monday, April 11) at 7.30pm and will look at the case of Sara Green who took her own life at the Priory Hospital where she was an inpatient.