Lack of awareness was a major failure for mom who committed suicide

Becky Montacute’s mother killed herself without telling anyone how bad things had got for her.

Becky, from Gipsy Hill, lost her mum Julie to suicide almost four years ago.

Her mum suffered from mental health difficulties for much of her life – but largely kept the seriousness of her condition hidden from her family.

After her medication stopped working and she made what appeared to be an attempt to take her life, she died by suicide after disappearing from her home in Somerset.

Becky, pictured left with her mum, is clear that Julie was let down by poor judgement within the local health system including lack of awareness of the risks her mum faced, so that she did not get the care she needed.

After being shown the evidence from the inquest into Julie’s death and a case for change being made by Becky, one of the local health trusts involved in Julie’s care agreed to make key changes to the services they provide.

Becky said: “The trust agreed to changes in staff training and to improvements in the exchange of information between A&E and mental health nurses which had been a major failing in my mum’s case.

“Awareness of suicide risk and prevention work needs to run right through the way staff and services operate.”