A vulnerable woman with schizophrenia was left to starve to death in her social housing flat as she was ‘failed and forgotten’ by adult social care, her family and their legal team say.
Laura Winham, 41, was found dead at her social housing property in Woking by her mother and brother in May 2021.
The family had been estranged from her for many years, having reluctantly kept their distance, at Laura’s insistence, as her schizophrenia caused her to believe they would harm her.
They say they took the ‘extremely tough decision’ to hand Laura over to a secure unit after she became ‘so very ill and delusional with reality’, believing she would get the specialist help she needed, but were then effectively cut from her life and not kept informed.
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'A catalyst for change'
Today, they have called for her death to act as a ‘catalyst for change’, to ensure other families who find themselves ‘trying to navigate the mental health system when loved ones change before their eyes because of mental illness’, have the support they need.
Laura’s siblings, Nicky and Roy shared a statement following the conclusion of an Inquest into her death at Surrey Coroner’s Court:
We repeatedly reached out to offer love and support, but as her mental health worsened, we were out of our depth.
Her mental illness caused her to fear persecution and abduction and led her to believe that her family and friends, who all loved her so much, were part of a conspiracy to cause her severe harm.
Imagine one of your loved ones, stood on a cliff edge and telling you that if you took one step forward towards them they would go over, but if you stepped back, they would stay. That was the position we were in.
We wanted to help her and see her but feared that if we didn’t respect her wishes, we would lose her.
It was a tragic situation and we found ourselves having to make the extremely tough decision to hand her over to a secure unit so that she could get the help she needed.
We believed we had taken the safest possible steps and were doing the right thing. We took comfort in knowing she had her own home and was entitled to both living and housing benefits, and, believing she would be appropriately supported and monitored, lived in the hope that with the right medication and support, we would see her well again and be reunited with her.
Sadly, that opportunity never came. We were never able to get close to Laura again. Laura should never have lost her life to mental health and we hope no other family goes through what we have, trying to navigate the mental health service with no prior experience and certainly not enough support.
The flats where Laura Winham was found
Sectioned twice and classed an ‘adult risk’
The Inquest heard that Laura had twice been sectioned and was alerted to Surrey County Council.
She had been in receipt of several benefits since 2002 but stopped receiving disability living allowance (DLA) in 2016 after the benefit was replaced with Personal Independence Payments (PIP), as she didn’t apply.
In October 2017 she was referred to Surrey County Council’s adult safeguarding team by police officers, who had visited her flat on a minor issue, as she had been self-harming, had little food and appeared unaware of how to access local services for help.
That may have been the last time she was seen alive.
She was classed as an adult at risk by Surrey County Council and the case was referred to the local authority’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub team, which passed down the details to the Woking locality team.
However, their only efforts to contact and assess Laura were to try calling her on a number – which police had already said was out of use – and sending her a letter which gave her two weeks to reply before her referral case was closed.
During the Inquest, Surrey County Council’s director of practice, assurance and safeguarding admitted it had been an ‘inappropriate method of contact’, and that Laura should have been visited.
Assistant Coroner Dr Karen Henderson described the response of the locality team as ‘deficient in every way’, saying the locality team ‘did the minimum required of them.’
She said there was ‘a lost opportunity to contact Laura or take steps to include other organisations such as her GP.’
‘Left to fend for herself – even though she was unable to’
Laura’s sister Nicky told the Inquest she believes she died at her home in Sheerwater on November 2, 2017, as she used to tick off each date on her calendar and this was the final one marked.
Although Assistant Coroner Dr Karen Henderson today recorded an open conclusion – and said Laura’s cause of death had been ‘unascertained’ – the family’s legal representative, Iftikhar Manzoor, of Hudgell Solicitors, believes that had a physical welfare visit been carried out in October 2017, Laura would not have died. He said:
Laura was clearly a person potentially at risk, but she wasn’t deemed worth visiting and was discharged from mental health services. She was not provided with any structured care plan or a crisis plan, and no offers of advocacy support were made. She was left to fend for herself – even though she was unable to.
Had adult social care visited Laura’s home within a few days of that referral in 2017, as they should have done, then, Laura would have been alive. She would not have died of starvation and she wanted help and would have been receptive to it.
This inquest has made it abundantly clear. Laura was never failed by her family. The safeguarding review found nothing they could have done would have changed the course of events. They sought professional help, but were then not kept informed, and input was lost from people who truly loved her.
From that point on, Laura was failed and forgotten by the system, she was left on her own, unable to cope with life.
We say she died of non-intentional starvation. All Laura and her family needed was a system and society that cared enough about a vulnerable person. That didn’t happen.
Laura’s body was discovered by her brother in May 2021, when it became apparent nobody had seen her for more than three-and-a-half years. She only had a small amount of spare change to her name.
Nicky, and her brother Roy, added:
We hope Laura’s legacy could be her being the catalyst for change in our system, ensuring lessons are learned so that families who see a loved one change before their eyes because of mental illness have the support they need and deserve to help bring that loved one back into their lives again.
We want Laura to be remembered for who she was – a bright fun-loving, extremely caring and engaging girl with a beautiful infectious laugh and a cheeky sense of humour, with a love for practical jokes, who was also nurturing with younger children and animals.
