The Exchange

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Each year, Mental Health trusts spend millions of pounds use lawyers to represent you at inquests, where they could be found, to error. The relatives of those who died, however, often no legal aid and stand up and face these lawyers alone. Becky Montacute describes your offer, in order to ensure That the lessons have been learned from the Death of her mother.

I was at work When I found out That my mom was missing.

I don't have to panic, until my brother called me and said That it was The Police helicopter over The Lake .

Try to keep it together, I started my journey in the home of the Chew Valley in Somerset. But in the taxi to Paddington Station , I got a call from my stepfather to tell me That they had found a body.

A few days later, I stared at a Leaflet about inquests. I'd picked it up in the waiting room of the morgue, right after we'd identified my mother's body. With a Death like the mom from the moment, where it happened, The Clock is ticking on the legal process, this is your only chance to find out how and why their loved One died. The Leaflet - provided by a charity organization for grief-stricken Families - was The First and last bit of help we receive, without having to search actively for it. The State offered absolutely no support.

My mother, Julie , died in The Lake on February 22 last year at the age of 56 years.

I have since learned That you with your Mental Health , When I was a baby, But I knew it never. She was a wonderful mom who is always on the needs and concerns of others over their own. She raised me and my brother on her own for years, and had looked forward to retirement with my stepfather, and finally, relax in the be able to.

It was clear That mom was seriously ill When I went to stay at home, right in front of my first job, in April 2017. She then told me That she had tried to kill himself, not for a long time. After weeks of calls to the Mental Health Team , she was eventually cut, But they wrote me The Day she went to The Hospital to promise That they would later in the time for my studies a couple of weeks. Even then, she thought of others, not themselves.

Becky graduated with a PhD from the University of Manchester, with Julie

she was cut for about Six Weeks . If you got whacked on The Right medications, with someone checking That you actually took it, it was like a switch again.

But a few months later, at the beginning of 2018, she began to issues related to Mental Health services for their help again. She was worried her medication had stopped working. You never wanted my brother and I know how sick she was, and she hid it from us, But I know now, That you repeatedly call services for Mental Health . My mother was the perfect patient, and actively seek treatment, But she was not the care they urgently needed.

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you Listen to Becky's story, Families -v-The State : An unfair fight?

In February, the sister were spotted only once by a Mental Health sick That you rated as "low risk", Mama misses twice. The second time she was involved in a serious car accident so serious That a motorway had to be closed, and she was Cut Out of their car before they brought in a hospital.

as if by a miracle, she was hardly injured, But eyewitnesses report That she had turned in front of a truck and employees in the A& E and The Police was concerned, it was a deliberate attempt to hurt. Mom assessed by an emergency Mental Health Team in the A& E, But they sent her home without any instructions on How To care for them. I could not believe That after what you just been through an experience traumatic, even for someone who is normally good, you could easily and allow you to leave.

Now seriously concerned, my stepfather tried to get help, with the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health partnership, to try to make appointments. After Two Days , you would see mom as soon as she could, she finally offered her an appointment for six days later. In my desperation, my stepfather got an emergency appointment with your GP, But the GP is canceled, and said it was the responsibility of the Mental Health Team . She died the next day.

Julie as a teenager

While we can never be sure That we know ended up in The Lake , aware of, before she had attempted suicide and was just as sick as she had been then. Although it was clear That she urgently needed help, I had never believed That you could die. Nothing can prepare you for That .

For a long time, I was in shock. I went back to work, and I'm forced to see me by friends, But on the search, I was clearly OK. I often forget to eat, and was overwhelmed with grief to work When I stopped for a moment. On top of That , I tried for the rest of My Family , including my mother, the old parents, whose pain I could not even imagine.

However, the investigation That was our only chance to find out how Mama came to die, getting closer, Every Day . I was shocked, grief-stricken 26-year-old, But soon I realized That I would have to come up with a complicated legal process That I knew nothing.

to know Never mind, all the answers, I didn't know what questions I should ask.

I held someone of the court be expected to provide medicine to help us, But no One has done it. It was explained to me That because of the way how my mother died - in community Mental Health care, while cut in The Hospital - we would not be entitled to legal aid. The fact That Mental Health had failed to the services section, if you should have meant, we would have less rights to help. (Also Families , the conditions for legal aid, which often do not obtain enough in order to all of their legal bills, and can pay with the left thousands of pounds out of your own pocket. )

The government says That lawyers should not be required for an investigation, because it is provided, the adversarial procedure. In other words, an investigation should not with the kind of arguments That may be necessary for a lawyer to help. It is a completely neutral investigation into the events, in which all parties involved are on the same page - search for the same Truth to.

Julie and Becky as a baby

But the reality was very different. In the case of my mom, the investigation, as is the case with almost all of the cases like yours, the Mental Health Trusts and the GP involved in your case with the legal representative.

I'm happy. I have friends who are lawyers, and even a friend who works at inquests. You gave me Good Advice , which from the beginning of The Process . Immediately, My Friend told me to write everything down, what could I died remember me from The Weeks before Mama. I'm so glad you told me That , because within days of the shock meant I could hardly remember That time at all.

My Friend has helped me to see the love, Inquest, That gave me a case Manager to ask for advice. In the end, the only lawyer I could find and afford was a friend of a friend who offered me a massively reduced price. But even then, the cost is several thousand pounds, ran for four days in the court.

I spent weeks preparing, reading about the pile of medical notes and notes from the Mental Health trust's own investigation - the investigating judge had sent me to try to figure out what I wanted to say and what questions to be asked. It was in those notes I read the official cause of Death - drowning - for the First Time . No One had actually told me. I just came across you, Without Warning , in a stack of documents.

Now, a few months after mum's Death , I stood up in court. For two preliminary hearings, I could not afford my lawyer present, so I had to represent my mom to me. In front of the investigating judge, the lawyers, and My Own family The Most horrible thing I ever did was talk really, and I was desperate to do it to do Well , my Mama justice.

legal aid for inquests

although he could not be there for the preparations for the main hearing, my lawyer ' s advice was of crucial importance. The Coroner had planned the study to only look at the events in The Few days after mum's car Crash , what until her Death . The attorney advised me That I press could be expanded for you, so That The Weeks , That if she had been, unsuccessfully tried to seek help, would also be investigated. Some of the errors That the court of medicine were finally identified in this period.

bereavement, long reads, mental health, legal aid, inquests

Source of news: bbc.com