Tragic death demonstrates a gap in care of mentally ill

Published: 25 March, 2011

• THE sad death of Valerie Gough in Jasper ward at Highgate Mental Health Centre is a repeat of the well-known story about what happens once someone is diagnosed as being mentally ill (Family; Our unanswered questions over death in ward, March 18). Thereafter, any symptom is regarded as being part of that mental illness and not treated on its own merits.  

It is a common complaint of patients that they are not taken seriously when they complain about any other illness. There are junior doctors attached to the wards at Highgate Mental Health Centre but they often seem blinkered to anything other than the mental health problems.



It is a fact that people who experience mental illness tend to have poorer physical health than the rest of the population. They need regular physical health checks but these often don’t happen because the patient is seen as simply a “nuisance”.  

This label means it is harder for them to be diagnosed and treated. This tragic chapter seems to raise again the question about where is the patients’ organisation, Islington Borough User Group, in all this. Why isn’t it showing concern about these failures of treatment?  

Perhaps it too feels that its only concern is mental illness.

J SPENCER
Mercers Road, N19