Delays in moving a 20-year-old woman in a mental health hospital closer to home led to her condition deteriorating before she died, an inquest jury has concluded.
Lauren Bridges took her own life while she was in a mental health hospital 250 miles away from her family.
The move was meant to be temporary, but when she died she had been there for nine months.
On Friday, the jury at an inquest into her death concluded she died by misadventure – and determined that a prolonged stay at an out-of-area psychiatric unit and delays in her being moved closer to home caused her mental health to deteriorate.
Her mother Lindsey Bridges told Sky News that in the weeks leading up to her death her daughter was “very let down”.
“She said that she could see no way out, she was going to be held in that hospital forever,” Ms Bridges said.
Lauren was autistic, with a mental age much younger than 20, but was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after being diagnosed with a personality disorder.
She was being treated locally when she was sent to Manchester because of a lack of beds in her home town in Dorset.
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Ms Bridges said that if the government had stuck to their plan to end all out-of-area placements, “then we would still have Lauren, and other families might still have their children”.
She said she wasn’t even warned about her daughter’s move: “I woke up to a phone call from Lauren. She was hysterical, crying her eyes out.
“She said hospital transport was on its way to pick her up and she was being sent to Manchester.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected] in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
