Decision Report 201803099

Summary

Mr C, an advocate, complained on behalf of his client (Mrs B) about the care and treatment provided to Mrs B's daughter (Ms A) by the partnership. Ms A was referred to the partnership after she was considered to have experienced an episode of psychosis (a mental health problem that causes people to perceive or interpret things differently from those around them).

Mr C complained that the mental health team had failed to provide Ms A with reasonable care and treatment in response to physical symptoms she was experiencing. He complained that there was a failure to communicate appropriately with Ms A's GP and with her parents. Mr C also complained that the mental health team inappropriately had meetings with Ms A in public settings.

We took independent advice from a consultant psychiatrist and from a mental health nurse. We found that Ms A's care and treatment was reasonable in relation to her physical symptoms and we did not uphold this aspect of the complaint.

We found that there was an unreasonable gap in updating Ms A's GP, which the partnership had already acknowledged and apologised for. We upheld this aspect of the complaint and we asked for evidence of the actions carried out by the partnership in response to this.

We found that the communication with Ms A's parents was reasonable. We found that there were occasions where meetings were offered to Ms A's parents, which were not arranged. However, we did not find evidence that this affected Ms A's care and treatment so we did not uphold this aspect of the complaint.

We found that it was reasonable that the mental health team had meetings with Ms A in public settings as this was at her request and consideration was given to maintaining her confidentiality. We did not uphold this aspect of the complaint.