Suicide of anguished woman PC whose call for help was ignored
THE tragic death of a woman PC made an MBE for her outstanding work with her local community came after her desperate pleas for psychiatric help fell on deaf ears, an inquest has heard.
Sharon Houfe, 43, hanged herself despite being assessed four times by mental health professionals in the days before her death.
She repeatedly told medical staff she intended to take her own life but they failed to alert a psychiatrist to carry out a full assessment, Hull coroner’s court was told.
The community cohesion officer for Humberside Police was recognised in the 2014 New Year’s honours list for her work with minority groups in Hull.
Suffered
But she had a series of underlying health problems, including fibromyalgia, which causes pain all over the body, and suffered a sharp deterioration in her mental state.
She was taken to A&E after expressing suicidal thoughts on Saturday, April 23, 2016, just six days before her death.
There she was seen by Claire Copeland, who told the inquest this week: “I contacted the crisis team as I was concerned with her behaviour towards the end of the assessment after mentioning she might kill herself that night.
“But they told me there was no basis for any home-based treatment and that counselling would be the best way forward.”
Ms Copeland agreed that Sharon’s comments produced a number of “red flags” about her mental health.
She said: “She talked about electrocuting herself but she never discussed how she would do it and she said she would not act on it.
“She talked about her bad haircut, having had £600 extensions put in, which was affecting her self-esteem but the issues were wider than this.”
Two days later PC Houfe was referred by her GP to Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust where mental health nurse Christopher Hogg admitted having “grave concerns” after a 40-minute phone conversation.
He said: “I thought she was risky and acutely ill. It felt to me the severity of her symptoms had not been getting through to other people she had seen.
“She felt she had been over-egging her symptoms when, in fact, I think she was under-egging them. She was berating herself.”
Despite Mr Hogg’s concerns he decided an on-the-spot assessment was not required and instead made an urgent referral for her to be seen within five days. But the day before her appointment, paramedics again took PC Houfe to A&E after she suffered a panic attack.
Once there “a full mental health assessment was not performed”, specialist liaison practitioner Rebecca Mason admitted. She said: “In hindsight, there were some alarm bells.”
The inquest continues.