Parents' call over mental health bill backed

Ruth's death was a "terrible tragedy", Dame Rachel said

Warning: This story contains details that some may find disturbing.

The parents of a 14-year-old girl unlawfully killed after being detained at a mental health hospital have called for a key bill to be improved.

Ruth Szymankiewicz, from Salisbury, died two days after a self-inflicted injury at Huntercombe Hospital in Maidenhead, where she had been detained under the Mental Health Act, in February 2022.

Her parents, Kate and Mark, supported by Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza, said the Mental Health Bill should be amended so no child dies in similar circumstances.

They have called for rights to family contact to be protected and strengthened while in hospital and safeguarding against children being placed in inappropriate settings.

The bill is due to return to the House of Commons for debate on Tuesday.

Ruth’s mother will attend a briefing for MPs on Monday at Portcullis House in Westminster seeking cross-party support.

She will call for increased community-based support to tackle inequalities and any unnecessary hospitalisation.

Ruth loved nature and kept chickens at home, her parents told the inquest in August

Ruth's parents said: "We want all children, regardless of whether they are in a general paediatric ward or a mental health ward to have unrestricted access to the support of their families.

"When Ruth was on the general paediatric ward she was able to have a parent or family member with her whenever she wanted, night or day.

"Once she was transferred to the mental health ward, she was only allowed to see us for a maximum of two hours, twice a week. We and she asked, and were denied, repeatedly, with no justification other than it was hospital policy."

Huntercombe Hospital, which has since been shut down, was rated inadequate and then requires improvement in two inspections by the Care Quality Commission in 2021.

More than half of the staff due to be working on Ruth's ward were absent when an inexperienced agency worker was drafted in to monitor her.

She was left unaccompanied for about 15 minutes and later found unconscious. She died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford two days later.

"Ruth's death was a terrible tragedy. She deserved to grow up into a brilliant young woman, with the support and protection she needed from the professionals trusted with her care," Dame Rachel said.

"As Children's Commissioner, children living in mental health inpatient care have told me about being denied contact with family, with nothing around them resembling the comfort of home.

"They tell me that, had the right help been given earlier, their circumstances would have been so different.

"Children must be supported at home wherever possible, never placed long distances from family, with visits from their loved ones whenever they want. This right was wrongly denied to Ruth – it must never happen again."

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