Family calls for Essex mental health inquiry to include mother’s death

Exclusive: Andrea Waddington, who went three months without NHS psychiatric appointment, died after inquiry cut-off date

A man whose mother killed herself after going three months without an NHS psychiatric appointment has said it is wrong that a public inquiry will not investigate her death and others like hers.

The Lampard inquiry is looking into the deaths of almost 2,000 mental health patients in Essex since 2000 but Andrea Waddington’s will not be included because it occurred in February, after the inquiry’s chosen cut-off date of the end of last year. Additionally, Waddington, who was 59 when she died, does not qualify because she was being treated in the community.

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.