Another young suicide highlights gaps in Cornwall’s mental health services

NOTE: I have used Brandon’s name and gender reference terms/pronouns as used by the speakers and based on the family’s expressed preference.

The death of a transgender person has again highlighted gaps in the provision of mental health care in Cornwall, an inquest has revealed. Brandon Turner, who was just 21 and known as Amelia, was found dead in a wooded area outside Launceston on June 21 last year, a month after being released from a mental health hospital.

An inquest into his death heard how Brandon and his brother Aidan were adopted by Pete and Gillian Turner when they were three and five years old respectively. They were removed from the care of their birth parents due to neglect and emotional abuse.

At an inquest in Truro on Thursday (May 9), Brandon’s mother Gillian (who asked to be named Brandon during the inquest) said Brandon was a bright and curious boy but had low self-esteem and had tried to settle down. school, which she attributed to childhood trauma. She told the hearing that as Brandon grew older, his behavior became challenging.

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She said she never mentioned her gender identity to her husband. Brandon left the family home at 19 and moved around Cornwall and Devon, sleeping in a tent in the Exmouth area and couch surfing at friends’ houses. Mrs Turner said Brandon would use cannabis as a way of coping with his mental health problems and also told her husband he had suicidal thoughts for which he was encouraged to seek help.

His mother told the hearing: “We tried to help him but he never talked about his struggles. He told us he was taking medication. He never talked about suicide with me, but Pete encouraged him to seek help.

“He tried not to show his pain when he was with us. He moved out of the house again in early 2023, but he knew our door was always open if he needed it.”

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Ms Turner said Brandon told them he was transitioning and was on a gender reassignment waiting list. In a statement read in court, Abigail Striplin, Brandon’s partner in the months before his death, said she was Amelia to her.

She said: “Amelia was the best thing that ever happened to me. Amelia hadn’t transitioned when we were together, but she was on the waiting list. He struggled with mental health and had multiple personality disorder and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

“Amelia used cannabis as a coping mechanism. I’m not sure why she suffered so badly. She told me her birth parents weren’t fit to be parents. She wanted to end her life, but she never said that he will when we are together.”

The inquest heard how the 21-year-old had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act five times since January 2021, including a stay at Longreach House mental health unit a month before his death. Jeremy Sandbrook, a consultant psychiatrist at Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who looked after him at the time, told the inquest that Brandon was emotionally unstable, had problems forming relationships with mental health services, with people and accepting himself, which he said stemmed from his early childhood trauma.

Dr Sandbrook told the inquest that Brandon, who identified as pansexual trans, had been diagnosed with PTSD and autism spectrum disorder, but also said autism diagnosis and mental health provision more generally in Cornwall had been affected by staffing issues and the lack of facilities that exist in other parts of the country.

He told the hearing that there were no alternatives to mental health hospitals in Cornwall, such as day hospitals, where patients could come and deal with their problems without being detained under the Mental Health Act. He said there were no crisis cafes or facilities in Cornwall similar to the facilities that exist in other counties that provide community support settings for mental health patients.

He said there were also insufficient human resources within the partnership trust’s home treatment team, while the waiting list for an autism diagnosis was two years, leaving people in potentially worsening situations. for a long time until they can access the right help. Andrew Cox, Senior Coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said the crisis in mental health provision in Cornwall was a national problem.

He said he would write a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Council about the issues raised by Brandon’s death. Finding a conclusion of suicide in relation to his death, Mr Cox said: “Brandon, known as Amelia, had an extremely difficult early childhood, the legacy of which caused great problems as he moved through his teenage years to maturity.

“Despite the care and love of his foster parents, he struggled to understand his place in the world and struggled to understand his relationship to the world around him and the people in it. There were negative factors in his upbringing that led to PTSD compounded by autism spectrum disorder.

“Looking at it through his eyes, it must have been a very difficult world to live in. There is evidence from friends and his partner that he said he had taken his own life and a month before he died he tried, which is why he was taken to a safe place, Brandon took his own life and he intended to do it.”

Mr Cox said his PFD reports to local and national health authorities will again highlight the crisis in mental health services facing our county. He added: “It is not unique to Cornwall and it cannot be solved in Cornwall alone. It is a concern that needs to be addressed at the government level.

“I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to bring the staffing issues to their attention. There is a gap in the provision of care available to people with PTSD and complex mental health needs. There are no care facilities available and this should be considered for Cornwall by the health services.

“For autistic patients, diagnostic services are under-resourced with a two-year waiting list that needs attention.”