Rebecca McLellan, a 24-year-old from Clacton, Essex, had bipolar disorder. She was being treated by a mental health service, but her mother said she didn’t get the help she needed, which later led to her death.
The BBC reported that she was first treated by a psychiatrist in Essex, but when she planned to move to Ipswich for work, she was discharged.
Her mother said even her GP stopped treating her because she was moving. She explained that Rebecca struggled to get support from the very beginning, even though she kept asking for help. She felt Rebecca was badly let down.
Rebecca worked for the ambulance service during the pandemic, but at one point, she had no doctor or psychiatrist. Later, she found a new GP in Ipswich who referred her to a specialist.
She was given a care coordinator, but when he went on leave, no one replaced him. Rebecca sent many emails asking for help, but no one replied.
Rebecca’s mother said the lack of support was so bad that her daughter sometimes had to change her own medication because she couldn’t get advice from doctors. She even started buying her own medicine online.
In August, during a mental health crisis, Rebecca went to a mental health unit in Ipswich and refused to leave until she got help.
Her mother said Rebecca even offered to travel anywhere in Norfolk and Suffolk just to see a specialist, but instead, staff told her to leave and threatened to call the police.
Because of the lack of support, Rebecca began to feel hopeless about her future. She worried she might not be able to work, and her job meant everything to her.
Her mother, Natalie, said an urgent request was made to review Rebecca’s medication, but it was cancelled. When Rebecca finally saw a psychiatrist three weeks later, she was told she needed to start taking lithium, which scared her.
She was afraid the medication would change who she was and stop her from working, which was very important to her.
Just three weeks later, Rebecca took her own life.
At the inquest, it was shared that Rebecca had been struggling with her mental health for a long time. While working for the ambulance service, she had 18 therapy sessions with a psychotherapist who said she was at high risk of suicide. He even offered to keep helping her for free, but she didn’t continue. She also had four sessions with a psychiatrist, with her last visit in September 2023.
In a handwritten note, Rebecca said she felt frustrated with the mental health system, especially because the NHS trust often did not respond when she asked for help.
A video shown during the inquest showed Rebecca going to a clinic in Ipswich and asking to speak to a mental health professional. The receptionist told her no one was available and warned she would call security if Rebecca didn’t leave.
In a letter, Rebecca shared how hopeless she felt. She said people can get through hard times if they can see things getting better, but she couldn’t see any hope for herself.
She also wrote that she missed who she used to be and felt tired after struggling for so long.
At the end of her letter, she thanked the people who loved her and said she loved them too. She said she had tried her best.
Anthony Deery, the chief nurse at the NHS trust, said they are very sorry for the deep pain caused by Rebecca’s death.
He explained that they carried out a full investigation into the care Rebecca received and thanked her family and friends for helping with it.
Because of what happened, they have created a new system to better respond when a young person comes to a mental health unit in distress without an appointment.
He also said they will carefully review the coroner’s findings and make more changes if needed to provide safer, kinder, and better care.
Rebecca’s mother described her as a loving, kind, sensitive, and very loyal person who always stood up for others.
After the inquest, she said her daughter truly wanted help and fought hard to get it. She wanted to have control over her life, but she was not given the consistent care she needed.
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