A SWINDON mother has slammed mental health care in the town after her suicidal daughter was left without her anti-depression pills for hours.

Celia Lanney, 73, called crisis care staff at treatment centre Sandalwood Court early last Wednesday morning after her daughter, Sylvia Faircloth became suicidal and was screaming for her tablets.

Staff from the centre had visited Celia’s house in Shrivenham Road the previous evening after her 48-year-old daughter was in the midst of a health crisis, threatening to take her own life.

“I begged them to let her go into hospital,” Celia said.

Instead, the mental health nurses removed her 'tablets' – a cocktail of anti-depressant drugs intended to help Sylvia.

Celia says that the nurses were meant to return with the tablets on Wednesday morning. Her daughter takes her medication at 8am, midday and 5pm.

But Celia alleges that the mental health crisis team failed to show up – and only took her daughter to Sandalwood Court care centre after a daily nurse visited and called the crisis team herself.

By Wednesday afternoon Sylvia was back at home – with one set of tablets that had been left by the crisis team.

“She tried to run away and kill herself. I’m worried about what happens if I can’t run with her,” said Celia, who suffers poor mobility.

A spokesman for the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, which is responsible for mental health care provision in the area, said: “Our staff are skilled and experienced professionals and make informed decisions around care and medication based on their knowledge of an individual.

“We take the comments and experiences relating to our services very seriously. Although we cannot comment on individual issues, we would encourage the family to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 0800 073 1778 who will look into the matter on their behalf.”

Celia says she is angry about how those with mental health issues are supported in Swindon.

“When I begged them to let Sylvia go into hospital – even if it’s for a week or two – they said that was impossible," she cried.

“When they are ill, they [the crisis team] wait until they’re really, really bad. Why wait until they’re so bad they don’t want to go in?”

A spokesman for the trust said: “As much as possible, we support people in their homes as this creates the least amount of disruption in their lives. Our aim is to keep people from needing to be admitted to hospital as that can sometimes have a detrimental affect on their wellbeing.”

In an inspection report last September the Care Quality Commission gave the trust a ‘requires improvement’ rating. The regulator listed the trust’s mental health crisis services as ‘inadequate’.

The trust has been given two warning notices in the last 18 months, the CQC said. One of these was slapped on the trust in May 2016 because of “serious concerns about the quality of care in the health based places of safety across the trust.”

Last year Celia says her daughter had to spend the night in the cells at Gablecross Police Station. And, for fear of leaving her daughter, Celia spent the evening there too.

Mental health charity Mind last year called on parliament to end the use of police cells as ‘places of safety’ for people in mental health crisis.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: “When you’re in a mental health crisis, you may become frustrated, frightened and extremely distressed. Your behaviour could be perceived as aggressive and threatening to others, but you desperately need support and compassion.

"Being held in a police cell and effectively treated like a criminal only makes things worse.”

Data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council and shared by mental health charity Mind shows that in 2015/16 334 people were detained by Wiltshire Police under section 136 of the Mental Health Act. 33 people were taken to police cells and 301 to other ‘health-based places of safety.’

A spokesman from Wiltshire Police said: “When a person is in crisis and has been detained under the Mental Health Act we always endeavour to avoid detaining them in custody, which is only ever used as a last resort."

A spokesman from the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust said: “We work closely with our colleagues in the Police service to constantly improve how we liaise over people with mental health issues.

“Over the last year, improvements have been made with the introduction of Control Room mental health liaison teams, who help police identify whether an individual has mental health needs and therefore advise on the most appropriate response.”

  • The Samaritans are available to help anybody in distress and can be reached at any time free on 116 123 or by email at jo@samaritans.org