Source · Prevention of Future Deaths

Roger Stevenson

Ref: 2023-0446 Date: 13 Nov 2023 Coroner: James Dillon Area: Mid Kent and Medway Responses identified: 1 / 2 View PDF

A vulnerable adult with chronic mental ill health was "lost in the system" due to inadequate follow-up, delayed access to services, and lack of proactive support. Staffing shortages and poor family engagement further jeopardized care.

Date 13 Nov 2023

56-day deadline 8 Jan 2024

Responses identified 1 of 2

Alcohol, drug and medication related deaths Mental Health related deaths

Coroner's concerns

AI summary

View full coroner's concerns

The MATTERS OF CONCERN identified within evidence are as follows were as follows:

1. That Roger, as a vulnerable adult who had been recognised to be in need of care and support, had been lost in the system (e.g. with a lack of 72 hour follow up in 2021) and may have been inappropriately housed.

2. There was a need for recognition of service users with cyclical chronic mental ill health issues – in this case being that help Roger received tended to be only at the time of crisis thus doing nothing to address long-term underlying chronic conditions.

3. That there was a lack steps taken to address isolation felt by service users suffering ill health where there were likely to be substantial delays in accessing services (such as being allocated a care co-ordinator) and receiving treatment which could lead to further feelings of desperation leading to thoughts of suicide and self-harm.

4. KMPT needed to ensure service users do receive a 72 hour follow up after presenting to an Emergency Department,

5. KMPT needed to consider provision of long-acting injection type (depot) medication to ensure compliance, particularly where a service user may have to wait substantial periods of time for other services such as therapy.

6. That mental health practitioners did not have means by which to engage with the families of service users, effectively recognising such families as an additional resource able to support mental health treatment by monitoring service users and encouraging them to engage with such treatment (and as an adjunct to that a way of noting that where consent has been given by a service user to disclose matters to family members this is clearly noted so that mental health staff are aware of it and can act promptly in so doing).

7. That staffing shortages continue to be a major issue in mental health treatment and that although efforts towards recruitment may alleviate this to some extent KMPT adding text to template letters giving a little more information to service users as to when they may expect to be seen is unlikely to be sufficient. Where such text is used though there would be an opportunity of referring to 3rd party agencies from whom additional support can be sought including charities like the Samaritans or emergency numbers (999 and 111).

Responses

1 respondent

Department of Health and Social Care Central Government

10 May 2024 PDF

Noted

The Department of Health and Social Care outlines existing and planned initiatives to improve mental health support, including increased funding for community mental health services, expansion of NHS Talking Therapies, and investment in crisis care alternatives. They state that responsibility for staffing and operations of mental health services lies with the relevant trust. (AI summary)

View full response

Dear Mr Dillon,

Thank you for the Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths of 13 November 2023, about the death of Roger Adrian Stevenson. I am replying as the Minister with responsibility for mental health.

Firstly, I would like to say how saddened I was to read of the circumstances of Roger’s death, and I offer my sincere condolences to his family and loved ones. The circumstances your report describes are concerning and I am grateful to you for bringing these matters to my attention. Please accept my sincere apologies for the significant delay in responding to this matter.

The report raises concerns over the provision and coordination of mental health support for vulnerable people, who may not be in regular contact with mental health services.

I note that you have also addressed matters of concern to the Chief Executive of NHS England, and I would expect her response to address the concerns raised around local issues.

We recognise that the demand on NHS mental health services has risen significantly, and this means that some people may face waiting times that are much longer than we would like. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are committed to expanding and transforming mental health services in England so that more people can get the help and support that they need. As part of this, we are set to reach nearly £1 billion additional funding invested by 2023/24 (compared to 2018/19) to transform community mental health services for adults with severe mental illness.

In July 2021, NHS England published the Care Programme Approach (CPA) Position Statement which sets out a new approach to delivering safe and high-quality care, including improving care co-ordination. This approach includes having a named key worker for all service users with a clear multidisciplinary team approach to both assess

and meet the needs of service users, to reduce the reliance on care co-ordinators and to increase resilience in systems of care. It also includes better support for and involvement of carers as a means to provide safer and more effective care.

The Government is committed to improving urgent mental health services. We have now made emergency mental health support through NHS111 available everywhere in England. For those with severe needs or in crisis, 24/7 urgent mental health helplines are already available in all areas of the country. These crisis lines currently take around 200,000 calls a month. Linking these through to NHS111 will provide a consistent route for people to access support across the country. Delivering this commitment will enable anyone experiencing mental health crisis to access assessment and, if appropriate, onward referral and treatment at any time of the day by calling NHS111.

In addition, there are now around 600 new or expanded crisis alternative services in England such as crisis cafes, safe havens, crisis houses, providing alternatives to A&E or psychiatric admission. We are also investing a further £150 million in mental health urgent and emergency care infrastructure across 2023/24 and 2024/25, to fund new mental health ambulances and a range of new and improved facilities, including crisis cafes, crisis houses, urgent mental health assessment and care centres, health-based places of safety and the redesign and refurbishment of some existing suites and facilities including in emergency departments. 99 of these schemes have now been completed.

With regard to your concerns around staffing shortages, the government is not able to comment on staffing levels locally, as responsibility for the staffing and operations of mental health services lies with the relevant trust. However, we do recognise the wider need to increase capacity in NHS mental health services. Nationally, we are making positive progress on our ambition to grow the mental health workforce by an extra 27,000 staff between 2019/20 and 2023/24. We delivered three quarters of this (around 20,800) by December 2023 with further growth expected to have been achieved once the full year figures for 2023/24 are available. Furthermore, our NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out an ambition to grow the mental health, primary and community care workforce by 73% by 2036-37, building on existing national plans to further grow the mental health workforce to improve access to services and quality of care.

I hope this response is helpful. Thank you for bringing these concerns to my attention.

Report sections

Investigation and inquest

On 18th October 2022 I commenced an investigation into the death of Roger Adrian Stevenson, age 28.

The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 29th September 2023. The conclusion of the inquest was a narrative stating:

“Roger Adrian Stevenson was found deceased in room which is accommodation in which he had been staying. He was found deceased on the 2nd of May 2022 having last been seen alive on CCTV on the 30th of April 2022. Post-mortem evidence indicates that he had a morphine blood level which in a range that could have been fatal to him. He had a lengthy history of mental health issues and had been lost to the mental health services in the months leading to his death.”

The medical cause of death was recorded as:

1(a) Fatal toxic morphine intoxication

Circumstances of the death

Roger Stevenson was found deceased in his room at (being state funded supported accommodation) during the early hours of the 2nd of May 2022, he was last known to be alive (from CCTV footage) on the afternoon of Friday 30th April 2022. The post mortem evidence including toxicology has established that the medical cause of death was fatal toxic morphine intoxication.

While Roger’s death was initially not treated as suspicious a later disclosure by another resident led to police investigation

.

It was believed that Roger had been abstinent of drugs for some time prior to this.

No evidence, beyond the account of the other resident (who failed to attend court to give evidence), was identified from which any intention by Roger to self-harm could be inferred.

The evidence indicated that Roger had become lost to mental health services through the local NHS Trust, namely Kent and Medway NHS and Social care Partnership Trust (”KMPT”). Roger had last been formally assessed under the Mental Health Act in July 2021 although on that occasion he was not assessed to be detainable. No 72 hour follow up, after Roger was discharged, was carried out. No consideration appears to have been had to the provision of depot type injections to help Roger to comply with his Quetiapine regime.

Roger had engaged with other community services including Kent Enablement Recovery Service. However family concerns were highlighted that Roger would go through a cyclical pattern of illness in which he would have placid periods and in which he would be told to engage with community services but there were not arrangements in place to ensure that he did so. It was then felt that only when Roger had manic periods of crisis would mental health services become significantly engaged with him.

The family highlighted concerns about a lack of communication and multidisciplinary approach between agencies (including Kent County Council and KMPT) to assist Roger into maintaining a stable lifestyle rather than a position where the cyclical pattern of mental health issues would continue (depot injections being one example).

It was identified that Roger had been transferred between Community Mental Health Team in Medway and Maidstone, delays in these transfers occurred and it was shown that transfer policies were not followed so far as written and ,as bets practice face to face, handovers were concerned. It was also identified that Roger was among 149 individuals awaiting allocation of a care co-ordinator owing to KMPT resourcing issues.

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Shared signals

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Report details

Reference: 2023-0446
Date of report: 13 November 2023
Coroner: James Dillon
Coroner area: Mid Kent and Medway

Responses identified

Responses identified 1 of 2

1 response not yet linked

Organisations named in PFD reports are normally expected to respond within 56 days. Deadline: 8 Jan 2024.

Sent to

Department of Health and Social Care

NHS England

Source links

Judiciary.uk page → Report PDF →

Data: judiciary.uk under OGL.