An inquest into the death of a man who tragically took his own life has raised questions surrounding the police’s ability to deal with incidents concerning mental health.
An inquest heard that Luke had a history of depression and mental illness with the expression to self harm as well as substance misuse.
This mental health struggle was exacerbated by the passing of his father from cancer and the subsequent suicide of his grandfather.
Luke was described as a passionate cook and worked as a chef at the Highwayman in Dobwalls, later running a fish and chip van in Pensilva, and was working as a yardsman prior to his death.
Luke’s wife, Sam, described him as a “loveable, larger than life character.”
Leading up to his death, Luke had visited his GP to discuss his developing mental health and alcohol issues for which he was prescribed medication. Sandra, Luke’s mother, explained: “The loss of his father and suicide of his grandfather left him devastated.”
Luke had the opportunity to receive support from Outlook South West, where he was offered treatment for depression, grief, suicidal thoughts and alcohol use.
He was also referred to Add action, a specialist charity which works with young people, adults and families in overcoming problems associated with drug and alcohol misuse. However, over a period of 16 months he did not engage or attend many of his appointments.
Questions were raised at the inquest as to whether more could have been done to get Luke to the support he needed. As well as this, questions were asked of the police assessment immediately prior to his death.
Police officers were called to an incident in which Luke had attempted to harm himself on the afternoon of January 1, 2020. That afternoon, Luke was tended to and left by the police with close friends in the understanding he was going to seek further help. Luke sadly died later that day.
The inquest explored the amount of training the officers had, as well as the services at their disposal and whether it was sufficient and adequate for this kind of mental health emergency.
Officers had received training under the Mental Health Act however felt it was very little. One Special Constable, a volunteer police officer, explained: “I do not feel that I was trained or experienced enough to deal with the incident.”
PC Lucas, who arrived at the incident said: “The initial call stated that he was having a mental health crisis but the scene I was presented with was very jovial, he was laughing with friends.”
The inquest heard that it was the belief of PC Lucas that the street triage team were unavailable to provide supporting information due to the Bank Holiday. Street Triage were in fact working at the time, however, as Luke had only recently been in contact with support teams, there would have been minimal information available.
Following this questioning, inspector for mental health, James Patterson, said that since 2020 improvements have been made to assist officers when attending incidents concerning mental health such as access to records, resources and updated training.
The jury concluded a verdict of suicide and this was recorded by coroner Andrew Cox.