The father of a Dundee suicide victim has lambasted the “outrageous” conduct of NHS Tayside after hearing that a young mother overdosed on drugs three times after being turned away from a city psychiatric unit.
Malcolm Nichol has been meeting with both health board officials and politicians in a bid to address the issues faced by those with mental health problems since his son Scott (22) took his own life in July.
Mr Nichol (46), from Forfar, has been highly critical of the lack of support he received from the authorities during Scott’s lengthy battle with drug addiction and mental illness.
Speaking to The Courier on Thursday, he said he was deeply distressed to read of the 37-year-old woman’s plight in Wednesday’s paper.
The woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder and has a six-year-old daughter, made three attempts on her own life after a psychiatrist told her there were no available beds in the Carseview Centre where she had previously received “excellent care.”
Her “furious” husband claimed that she had been sent home from the accident and emergency department at the adjacent Ninewells Hospital on each occasion, two of which were in the early hours of the morning.
Mr Nichol who has been on anti-depressants and unable to return to work as a refuse collector since his son died said the incident was proof that those at the health board “don’t give a monkey’s.”
He added, “After Scott died I went to meet Tony Wells (NHS Tayside chief executive) along with Martin Bell, whose son Ian also killed himself recently.
“It was insulting. I felt that all he did was boast about what they were doing to stop more people doing what Scott and Ian had done and now this happens.
“It’s okay for him getting megabucks for what he does but we’re going through sheer hell and he’ll never understand that.
“That’s why I nearly fell off my chair when I read about this I was raging.
“The bottom line is there’s something far wrong here. What if this woman had gone out and killed herself?”
The woman, whose identity her family wish to protect, was admitted to Sunnyside Royal Hospital on Monday after initially refusing a place at the Montrose unit.
However, Mr Nichol said he firmly believed the incident showed that NHS Tayside needed to devote a greater proportion of resources to the specialist care of highly depressed patients.
“I want to keep fighting for this, not just for Scott but for my own sanity.
“If we can stop just one other young person from taking their own life, this will have been worth it.”
A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside denied that there was a shortage of beds in what was a “Tayside-wide service.”
She refused to say whether or not the Carseview Centre was full and stated the availability of beds in specific hospitals changed on a daily basis.
She added, “This lady has been offered an in-patient bed in a psychiatric unit and has now been admitted.”