Another NHS failure, another young life lost

More and more nowadays we’re told where we can get help with our mental health. But what happens when professional help fails?

It’s the last line of defence, it’s the cord that keeps people from falling over the edge.

But once again, we’re reading stories about how mental health services failed and another life was lost.

There’s been a response. Lessons will be learned. Etcetera, etcetera.

Doesn’t make much of a change for Becky Goldsmith’s family does it?

And it doesn’t make a slight bit of difference for every single family who have watched a loved one

“slip through the cracks” of this country’s mental health system. What does that even mean? It’s a nicer way of saying the system failed.

We all love the NHS, but its mental health support is failing. It all stems from a common misunderstanding. Doctors don’t know when to diagnose people with particular conditions.

People are still being misdiagnosed with personality disorders.

But even if a diagnosis is wrong, the frontline support should still be there.

Everyone should be able to have essential lifesaving support and we shouldn’t have to depend on charities to provide it.

There are awareness days, sound bites from politicians, promises of funding and the repeated call that it’s “time to change”.

It all sounds very good, but when tragedy strikes we’re left with the same question. Who’s dropped the ball?

But as Becky’s father aptly said: “That ball isn’t a ball, it’s a person.”