Care home staff ‘failed’ ex-student who killed herself

Bosses could face closure unless it improves

ABLACK Country care home has been plunged into special measures following the death of a woman.

An inquest into the death of Shannon Quinn, found hanged in her room, ruled that staff at Tipton’s Oak House mental health failed the 24-year-old.

Miss Quinn, from Solihull, was on suicide watch when she took her own life on January 9, the hearing was told.

The concerns of her family have now been echoed by the Care Quality Commission’s report.

Following an inspection, it found the home “inadequate” and warned it will close Oak House, run by Camino Healthcare, if “significant improvements” are not made in the next six months.

Miss Quinn’s family have applauded the CQC’s intervention.

In a statement, they said: “Shame on them. Shannon is not another statistic. She is a person, a daughter, a sister, an aunt and a loss to the people who loved and will always miss her.

“We hope nobody else has to suffer like Shannon did.”

Miss Quinn, a former fine arts student at Birmingham University,

had a history of self-harm, the Oldbury inquest was told. Her diary revealed her own concerns over lack of supervision.

Staff did not possess the skill to cope with her complex conditions, which also included Asperger’s syndrome, anxiety and depression.

Coroner Zafar Siddique recorded a verdict of accidental death but found neglect was a “direct contributory factor” and that there had been “gross failings” in her care.

The family claimed the lack of training for Miss Quinn’s condition – Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder – meant staff were “potentially playing Russian roulette” with her life.

Oak House failed to pass muster in all five key categories probed by the CQC:

Is the service safe? Rating - inadequate;

Is the service well-led? Inadequate;

Is the service effective?

Requires improvement;

Is the service caring? Requires improvement ;

Is the service responsive? Requires improvement.

The CQC found “people were not safe and were at risk of avoidable harm”. Training was also a cause for concern and staff admitted they felt “unprepared” to handle incidents.

One said: “They sold this as a rehabilitation unit but then placed people who are not suitable for rehabilitation. They (people) are too complex and the training doesn’t match the people we have here.”

One person, assaulted by a fellow patient, told the CQC: “The member of staff was useless, they should have stopped it before it got that far.”

A total of 53 “safeguarding issues” over a 12-month period had not been recorded.

The CQC has given Oak House 12 months to turn things around. The inspectors’ report warned: “If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures.

“This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service.”

Barry Stanley-Wilkinson, Camino Healthcare’s head of health care, said: “Regarding the unreported issues of safeguarding, although the issues themselves had not been reported to the safeguarding team as they should have been, there was no individual in that service that had come to any harm.”