I read with deep sadness the article by Kate Szymankiewicz about the death of her 14-year-old daughter Ruth (‘The ward felt like a prison. What had I let them do?’: how my daughter was crushed by a health service meant to help her, 8 November).
As a parent of a child who has also suffered with an eating disorder, I recall the same feelings of horror at the loss of control while we saw our daughter sectioned three times under the Mental Health Act.
Our daughter ended up in locked institutions for 15 months, where self-harm, suicide attempts and attempts at absconding were the norm.
She was the same age as Ruth when sectioned, far away from home, and without access to therapeutic support because she was deemed too ill. We were isolated as parents, with no support, and spent our time writing letters and making phone calls within a labyrinthine system designed to obfuscate.
Through our persistence, we eventually got access to a six-week family support group outside our own health authority area, because nothing existed locally. The simple act of speaking with other parents proved so valuable. The lack of such support made a mockery of the theory that families are at the heart of the treatment.
We are lucky to still have our daughter with us; there are many times we thought this wouldn’t be the case. She is now receiving private therapy, part of which is to address the trauma of the institutions to which she was sent. We live with the guilt of allowing the sectioning to happen, but choice was removed from us far too quickly.
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In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
