Dad ‘felt he was not worth saving’

A Dundee dad killed himself after being made to feel his life was not “worth saving”, his mother has claimed.

Dale Thomson, 27, committed suicide within days of his discharge from the psychiatric unit at the centre of allegations it has let down the most desperate people in society.

His mum Mandy McLaren broke down in tears in parliament as she recounted a conversation she had with him before his death in 2015.

Speaking before the Holyrood vote last night, she said Dale was told there was “nothing wrong with him” and he did not need follow-up treatment at Carseview.

“My son walked out of there and said to me, ‘they don’t think I’m worth saving’,” she told a press conference in Holyrood.

“And this is continuing. My son’s not the last and he’s not the first. How many more are going to have to do this, how many more families?”

Dale, who had a daughter called Evi, was hearing voices, suffering paranoia and attempted suicide before his admission to Carseview.

He was allowed to leave despite telling staff there he had a suicide plan, his mum said.

“My granddaughter is now going to grow up without a dad because they have failed,” Ms McLaren added

“My son had a total plan, he’d tried it before.

“He knew how he was going to do it, where he was going to do it, what he was going to use and he told them this.

“They completely ignored that, they thought that my son was OK.”

NHS Tayside apologised to the family in 2016 after admitting the “care and treatment of Dale fell below the standard we would expect”.