The complaint
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- Miss M complains that the Trust and the Council failed to properly assess and provide for the health and social needs of her mother, Mrs M, from 2004 until her death in October 2009. In particular:
- The Trust’s explanation that her mother was not covered by section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act) was unreasonable, in that her mother was entitled to receive aftercare services under the provisions of section 117 (from now referred to as aftercare services) following her compulsory detention in 1989 under section 3 of the Act; that her mother’s care at the Care Home1 should have formed part of aftercare services; and that the Trust’s assertion that her mother was not entitled to such aftercare was incorrect and had no evidential basis.
- The Trust’s assertion that her mother’s admission to the Care Home was for her physical needs (rather than for her mental health needs) is an attempt to avoid the responsibility of the NHS to fund her mother’s care at the Care Home.
- Her mother’s discharge from the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) in July 2005 was wholly inappropriate, given her mother’s long-term mental health needs, the inadequate assessment of her needs, and the failure to involve her mother’s family in the process or inform them of the discharge.
- The provision of care and treatment by the Trust between October 2004 and October 2009 was inadequate and offered little or no support for her mother’s mental health needs.
- The transfer of responsibility for her mother’s care to the Council’s Adult Social Care (ASC) team in December 2008 was inappropriate.
- The assessment of her mother’s needs following the transfer of responsibility for her care to the Council did not adequately address her mother’s health and care needs nor her emotional needs and well-being; and did not take into account her own views, the opinions of the medically qualified professionals involved in her mother’s care, nor her mother’s medical history.
- Miss M says that neither the Trust nor the Council met her mother’s complex needs; that her mother was placed in the Care Home and then ‘forgotten’; that her mother received no further treatment, rehabilitation or reviews; and that the Trust’s and the Council’s actions contributed to the rapid deterioration in her mother’s physical and mental health. She further complains that by the time she realised that her mother had been discharged from the CMHT, Mrs M had had no mental health support for three years. Miss M says that when her mother’s care was transferred to the Council in December 2008, she was effectively blocked from accessing mental health services at the Trust despite her need for ongoing support.
- The Care Home provides residential care and is registered under the categories of old age and dementia. It is not a nursing home.
