Image source, McCarlie family
- Author, Rachael McMenemy
- Role, BBC News, Northamptonshire
The family of a man who took his own life while waiting for an ambulance say the man would still be alive if the mental health care he received in his community had been better.
Liam McCarlie, 35, from Creaton, Northamptonshire, was in the care of the mental health team at Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) when he died on 1 April 2023.
His father and stepmother said they and their son believed the system would help him, but felt opportunities were missed and changes were needed in patient monitoring.
The foundation said new measures had been introduced to support patients in mental health crises.
Last year, while on holiday in Scotland, Doug and Lanor McCarlie became increasingly concerned about Liam after receiving worrying text messages and phone calls.
Stranded 600 miles (965 kilometres) away, they called 999 for an ambulance.
McCarlie said: “He was giving signs that he was going to commit suicide. We thought, ‘We can’t mess around with this.'”
The ambulance took more than five hours to arrive.
However, McCarlie said his family did not blame the ambulance service.
“If the mental health team had done a better job, we wouldn’t have needed an ambulance that night,” she said.
“Even 15 months later, we still deal with the pain every day.”
NHFT did not receive any recommendations in its report.
‘The support is not there’
Liam’s mental health began to deteriorate in 2021 after the death of his grandmother, who was “his absolute rock,” his parents said.
From that moment on he experienced multiple episodes of crisis.
Mrs McCarlie said: “Six months after his grandmother died he tried to take his own life and was resuscitated twice, and that’s when we realised we didn’t have the support we needed.
“He spent one night in hospital and was deemed fit to be discharged and return home.
“We worked hard to get him a three-day crisis bed. He has since been under the supervision of the community mental health team.”
Image source, McCarlie family
The couple described him as “quiet, kind, attentive, loving, shy and patient.”
A passionate fisherman and amateur nature photographer, his dog Cleo was “his absolute world,” they said.
He had been diagnosed with ADHD and was awaiting evaluation for emotionally unstable personality disorder at the time of his death.
While he waited, he was taken off all his medication and Ms McCarlie said there was no evidence the community mental health team had been in contact with him.
In the week before his death, he was urgently referred by his GP after his family struggled to find help for his deteriorating mental health.
“Before that I called the community mental health team and said, ‘Where can I take him? I need to take him now,'” Ms McCarlie said.
“I think we weren’t in a good place and we realized we were out of our depth.”
During a call with the urgent care and assessment team (UCAT), the urgency of her referral was downgraded and she was given an appointment for the Tuesday after her death.
“We think it was a completely missed opportunity,” he said.
“We are not in a position to say what should have been done, but it is clear that it should not have been left there.”
- If you are experiencing distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, there is a list of organisations available that can help you. here.
Image source, McCarlie family
Mr and Mrs McCarlie said they felt let down by a system they thought would help them.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the ambulance would take five hours,” Mrs McCarlie said.
“We were hoping that when he stopped responding [to messages] That was because he was either in the hospital or on his way now.
“When we got the call from the paramedics, we knew.”
Mr McCarlie said: “We believe in the system. We go to work, we pay our taxes and we believe the system is there to protect us and help us when we need it.”
“But that hasn’t really been our experience.
“We didn’t know they were defrauding him because we had faith that the system worked.”
They said changes were needed to prevent patients being excluded from care.
They want case managers to be appointed for each patient, to “oversee” all contact with services and escalate matters if necessary.
NHFT said this was already in effect.
Liam’s father also said there should have been a care management program in place for his family to help them support their son.
“Luckily we are both very strong mentally, but emotionally our batteries were very low all the time,” he said.
Image source, Liam McCarlie
Liam’s family hope to turn his nature photographs into cards that can be sold to raise funds for mental health charity Mind.
Adam Smith, director of mental health at NHFT, said the trust had contacted the coroner to address concerns during the inquest.
“As part of our ongoing commitment to developing our services, we have recently introduced a number of new measures to improve care and support for people experiencing a mental health crisis, including a new mental health crisis response unit working in partnership with the ambulance service and a new mental health texting service,” he said.
She added that all UCAT assessments were conducted in person and guidelines had been introduced on the importance of communicating with family members and carers.
Staff training also highlighted the “importance of completing risk assessments, clear safety planning and safeguarding referrals,” she said.
