Niece left to Google patient care advice

A suicidal man gripped by psychosis was told to “pull himself together” by a Carseview nurse, his family says.

David Ramsay, 50, was later found hanged in Templeton Woods in October 2016.

The former Timpson worker had been turned away twice from the Dundee psychiatric unit, despite being referred by his GP following suicide attempts.

His family say he was not offered any practical support at the centre – and killed himself four hours after a second emergency assessment.

Mr Ramsay’s niece Gillian Murray said: “Even though he thought that zombies were coming in to get us (and that) I was hypnotised by the dog, he was told to ‘pull himself together’ and go and do ‘normal things’ like walk the dog.”

She added: “That was the only advice that he got. We were given no advice, we were given no help. We were off work and we were having to play nurses and psychiatrists.

“I’m having to Google on my phone how to care for a suicidal individual, how to care for somebody with psychosis.”

Ms Murray added: “It was a case of ‘right get on with it, you’ll be fine, this is my bread and butter’ – what a way to speak to someone who is in the middle of psychosis.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: “As this is a legal matter we are unable to comment. Every suicide is a tragedy and we offer our condolences to the family.”

Robert Packham, from Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership, said mental health support has been redesigned and “new services have been introduced to manage people in crisis and support people to remain at home”.

“Following on from the Health Improvement Scotland visit to adult mental health services in December an action plan has been developed to address the recommendations made in the report,” he said.

“This is being taken forward as part of the mental health and learning disability services redesign transformation programme,” he added.