When Kate Szymankiewicz’s daughter Ruth died in a children’s mental health unit at just 14, her family’s world was shattered. Now, Kate is fighting to change the law to protect other children and families from the same failings.
Some of you may have seen the headlines this summer with my eldest daughter’s smiling face following the inquest into her death (Ruth Szymankiewicz: Inquest finds 14 year old Ruth Szymankiewicz was unlawfullykilled | Inquest)
Ruth was just 14 years old when she died in a Children’s Mental Health unit in February 2022. We still feel like we’re trapped in a hideous nightmare and cannot fathom how she, or we ended up where she did. Every parent thinks their child is amazing – Ruth was bright, funny, kind and had great friends. Things suddenly changed after the transition to secondary school and the start of those teenage years. The reality is that our family is not unique and the Mental Health Services are stretched beyond breaking point.
As a GP I support so many families struggling with their children’s mental health. One in five children have a mental health diagnosis, and yet there are so many more children without diagnosis who need our help. The likelihood is, if you’re reading this, that your child, or your niece or nephew, or your friend’s child is having challenges with anxiety, low mood, self harm, attending school or behavioural difficulties. The terrifying statistics show that between the ages of 10 and 19 years, your child is more likely to die from suicide than they are from cancer.
Since Ruth's inquest I've been working closely with the Children's Commissioner to push for amendments to the Mental Health Bill which goes to report stage on the 14 October. Ruth’s and our experience of inpatient care was shocking, with so many failures but we've had to focus on only a few things that we believe will have the biggest impact and most chance of making it into the actual Mental Health Act.
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 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. And we had no recourse to make them do anything differently.
As a natural follow on from access to family, we are also asking that children should not be admitted to adult mental health units (120 children were sent to adult units last year), and that children should not be sent far from home, or out of area. It was hard enough with Ruth being two hours from home, and supposedly within area, let alone hundreds of miles away.
We are also asking for an increase in community support to avoid the need for admission in the first place.
What we are asking for seems so obvious, but without these fundamentals being written into law, things will continue just as they were from Ruth.
With the support of our Salisbury MP, John Glen, and the MP for Isle of Wight West, Richard Quigley (whose own daughter was in the same hospital as Ruth) I am holding an in person briefing for MPs on Monday 13th October, alongside the Children's Commissioner. This is the day before the report stage and the last opportunity to explain and ask for support from MPs to vote in support for our amendments.
I'm asking all of you to email your own MPs to encourage them to attend the briefing on the 13 October, and importantly the actual report stage on the 14 October so they can cast their votes.
I've created a draft letter which you could amend further to make it personal to you. MPs are limited to act on behalf of their constituents so your individual letter is so so important. Please make sure you add your full address so they know you're in their constituency. You can use this link to find out who your MP is and how to contact them: Find your MP - MPs and Lords - UKParliament It only takes a few minutes.
We would be so grateful if you can share this request, and letter to everyone you feel would care enough to support it and amplify on your networks. The reality is that what happened to Ruth can happen to any child or young person. It is our great personal tragedy that we can't change it for Ruth, but perhaps she, and we, can change it for another child out there.