Mum calls for change after daughter's suicide

Ms Bridges said her daughter Jen was failed by multiple services

A Surrey mother has urged officials to significantly improve support services for young people after her 17-year-old daughter's suicide.

Jen Bridges-Chalkley took her own life in October 2021 at her mother's home in Bookham.

Mum Sharren Bridges told BBC Radio Surrey a "multi-agency, systematic failure" contributed to her "amazing" daughter's death.

The NHS and Surrey County Council have apologised and vowed to make changes.

Sharren Bridges said she lived in "constant fear" Jen would self-harm

Despite trying repeatedly to get professional help, Ms Bridges said schools, local authorities and medical staff failed to deliver for Jen.

"Its just hideous because these are big organisations that are meant to be there to support children and young people and they didn't.

"I tried and I was just brushed away."

Jen tried to take her own life six times, said Ms Bridges.

The first was when she was 14 years old.

Jen was referred to the children and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) three times, though Ms Bridges claimed staff did not understand her health conditions, such as autism and ADHD.

"We just kept going round and round," she said. "By the time Jen died, she had lost faith in the services that were there to help her."

Ms Bridges said she now wanted CAMHS to take autism and ADHD "seriously".

Services apologise

Graham Wareham, chief executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said he was "deeply saddened by the tragic death" of Jen.

He vowed to improve support for young people and their families.

Surrey's coroner concluded in May CAMHS had failed “properly to assess, diagnose and treat Jen, in order to manage her conditions and minimise her risk of suicide.”

Between May 2018 and June 2020, she was mostly on a waiting list for therapy from the psychology team and was awaiting assessment, the coroner added.

Clare Curran, Surrey County Council cabinet member for children, families & lifelong learning, said: “We sincerely apologise for any part our services played in Jen Chalkley’s tragic death and the distress of all those who love her."

She said the council had learnt from the findings of an inquest in May and would make changes "as quickly as possible."

Ms Bridges was advised to not leave Jen by herself

Ms Bridges listed a raft of other failings that led to her daughter's death.

She said it was a "battle" to get local authorities and medical staff to provide what her daughter "needed to stay alive".

Ms Bridges said schools should also better acknowledge "masking in children and young people", a phenomenon where they "pretend to cope" until they get home and explode like a "shaken-up bottle of coke".

All these departments needed to "ultimately listen to parents", she said.

'My heart breaks every morning'

She did everything she could but Ms Bridges said she still felt like she had failed Jen.

"You have one job as a parent and that is to keep your kids safe."

Jen was "the most amazing person you ever would have liked to have met. She loved life," Ms Bridges added.

"My heart breaks every morning when I wake up because I realise she's not home."