Mental health workers visited patient without realizing she was dead.

If credentialed "mental health" professionals can't tell a live patient from a dead one, how can they presume to conclude and believe a head of another contains an ailing brain just by looking at it?

Mental health workers visited patient without realizing she was dead.

(Linked updated to use the Archive.org copy of the wwebpage)

quote:

A mental health charity is reviewing its home visit procedures after two members of staff visited a patient and left without realising she was dead. Mind launched the inquiry after an inquest heard how the two visitors left paranoid schizophrenic Patricia Harris in the kitchen of her Coventry bedsit after she made no response to their greetings. The death of the 43-year-old only came to light the following day when two other Mind staff visited and saw she had passed away.

Kay St Clair, director of Mind's Coventry branch, described the events surrounding Miss Harris' death as "unprecedented" in the charity's experience. "We have extended our deepest sympathies to Mr and Mrs Harris,"she said. "Coventry Mind is immediately conducting a full internal review of procedures and practices in addition to taking external help and advice from independent outside experts."

The inquest in Coventry has heard Helen Redmond, the assistant head of housing services for the city's branch of Mind, and James Howard, one of the charity's community psychiatric nurses, visited Miss Harris at her bedsit in Binley Road on August 13 after learning that she had not been seen for five days. Entering the flat, they saw Miss Harris dressed in outdoor clothing and positioned between the two kitchen walls. Unable to see her face or any movement, and hearing no response to their efforts to engage her in conversation, the pair left when the telephone rang, to allow her to answer it.

With a tip of the hat to the Stop Shrinks website