'Our girl was failed from first day to last'

ByStuart Whincup and Duncan LeatherdaleReporting fromat Crook Coroner's Court

This article contains details of suicide and self-harm

The father of a teenage girl who died while under the care of a highly criticised mental health trust has said she was failed from her first day of care to her last.

Emily Moore, 18 and from Shildon, died in February 2020 while a patient at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust's (TEWV) Lanchester Road Hospital in Durham.

A jury inquest found her "treatment and trauma" throughout her dealings with mental health services, which included a stay at "chaotic and unsafe" West Lane Hopsital in Middlesbrough, were "contributing factors to her death".

TEWV said it was "deeply sorry" for the failures.

The inquest had heard Emily began experiencing severe mental health problems when she was 15 in 2017, culminating in her being sectioned and diagnosed with emerging emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) two years later.

How failures in girl's care contributed to her death

She spent the final 11 months of her life in three hospitals, starting with a traumatic four months at TEWV's West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough in March 2019.

Emily complained of being treated "like dirt" with staff swearing at her, mocking her and standing by while she self-harmed, while her father David said the hospital was a chaotic "hell-hole".

He told the BBC it was "hard to hear" how his daughter was treated, saying staff had been "absolutely cruel" to her.

"To be mocked and called names when she is in such a crisis is shocking, absolutely shocking."

David, who attended every day of the three-week long inquest with his wife Susan and relatives and friends of Emily, said the process had been "tough".

"We know what had gone on but to hear certain things from members of staff which we didn't know was very surprising," he said.

Revelations included hearing West Lane bosses saying they were "amazed" the hospital was rated good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in the summer of 2018, a year before it returned to shut it down as unsafe.

"For them to be amazed at having a good rating just doesn't sit well," David said.

He said he also was "very angry" after hearing staff had repeatedly raised concerns with directors about the hospital but the problems were not rectified.

The patients were "kids" who were "struggling at the hardest and lowest points of their lives" but the way they were treated was "inhumane", David said.

Another West Lane patient told the BBC she would "never get over" the things she saw and heard at the hospital.

"And I'll never be able to accept them," she added.

The inquest heard Emily made improvements when she was moved from West Lane to Ferndene in Prudhoe, run by Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW).

In her seven months there she was building "good relationships" with nurses and "got on well", David said.

"Most importantly she had structure to her day.

"She was enjoying it."

But when she turned 18 in February 2020 she had to be moved to an adult ward, and due to where she lived that meant a return to TEWV's care.

"We didn't want that, she didn't want that, even the nurses at Ferndene didn't want that because she was doing well," David said.

"But it had to happen, it did happen, it was just downhill from there."

He said experts had since said the transition from child to adult hospitals should be done more gradually with a bigger grace period, rather than an immediate move upon turning 18.

Solicitor Alistair Smith, who has been representing Emily's family, said the national policy of moving people immediately upon turning 18 was "crackers" and "shouldn't happen".

"Emily may have been numerically 18 but she wasn't emotionally," he said.

Emily moved into Lanchester Road Hospital on 6 February, two days after her birthday.

Seven days later, on 13 February, she fatally injured herself.

David had called her ward that morning to say he was concerned about his daughter after she posted an emotional tribute on Facebook to a friend who had died at West Lane.

"I was told 'don't worry we'll keep an eye on her', again it just didn't happen," David said.

"They found Emily roughly two to three hours later.

"Shocking, absolutely shocking."

Emily was declared dead two days later, having never regained consciousness.

"Her last day of life she was failed," her father said.

"She was failed from the first step of going into TEWV to the last day of being in TEWV."

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