My daughter only got support after writing suicide note – the system is broken_L
A coroner says there were “missed opportunities” where 15-year-old Evelyn could have had earlier support. Her parents are now working to improve the system.
Parents of a teenager who killed herself just weeks before her 16th birthday are battling to remove the stigma around talking about suicide.
Jenni and Jack Swift are also calling for changes to a “broken system” in the hope of improving the way that the NHS supports suicidal children across the country.
Their daughter Evelyn was known for her random acts of kindness, including baking cakes for emergency service workers during lockdown.
As a keen singer, she sang in school choirs and once performed the song Bear Necessities on BBC Radio 2 for Chris Evans.
Mr Swift said: “She was awesome. She was amazing. She was very kind and highly intelligent.”
The 37-year-old added: “She wasn’t without her troubles, certainly towards sort of the end of her life in her teenage years, but she loved baking, and she loved going out for walks with us.
“She was generally just an amazing amazing person.”
Evelyn lost her battle with mental health issues in April 2022, four years after her parents first took her to the doctor’s surgery to try and get help.
Mrs Swift said: “She was becoming more withdrawn and low in mood which is why I took her to the GP to try and get some support but sadly that didn’t materialise at the time.
“When I took her to the GP we saw a nurse practitioner and we were talking about her low mood and the nurse practitioner said to me in front of Evelyn there’s no point referring her to the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) unless she’s suicidal.
“We had not had any conversation about suicidal thoughts. I don’t think Evelyn had suicidal thoughts at that point in time.
“But that was the nurse practitioner’s view that there was no point referring to CAMHS because they wouldn’t accept her, she wouldn’t meet the criteria. To say that so openly in front of Evelyn had a really negative effect.
“We came away without support and Evelyn felt she wasn’t worth helping and that she had to be more unwell before she got help.”
They were told there was an option of a service that supported children with “low-level” mental health issues but that staff would only meet with Evelyn during school time.
Evelyn enjoyed spending time with her parents and her brother William (Image: Jenni and Jack Swift/ CALM)
She didn’t want to take this option because she didn’t want people talking about her in her all-girls school.
The following year Evelyn started having panic attacks but still no support was available from mental health services in her area.
In 2020 Mrs. Swift found a suicide note in her daughter’s bedroom and after speaking with her about it they went back to the GP surgery.
There a nurse practitioner referred Evelyn to the low-level mental health service, and it emerged she could have appointments outside of school time.
But these appointments came during the Covid period so they were only on the phone, and Evelyn’s condition worsened even further.
Thirty-nine-year-old Mrs Swift said: “Evelyn really struggled to build relationships with people on the phone. She really relied on facial expressions to understand if people were joking or if they were being serious.
“So those sessions weren’t, I mean they’re low-level support anyway, they weren’t particularly helpful and she started self-harming kind of during that period.
“Then she was referred on to CAMHS so after having support for six weeks and six weeks of phone calls there was then a gap while she was on the waiting list for CAMHS.
“During the gap she had nothing for a while, which she found really hard, and at which point we kind of noticed more issues with her, like with her eating and her body image.”
She was referred to the eating disorder team but she was initially rejected before then eventually being accepted.
And after being discharged from a mental health hospital, Evelyn did not receive the after-care and support she should have been given.
Mrs Swift says that during the inquest into her daughter’s death the coroner referred to these problems as missed opportunities where Evelyn could have had earlier support.
Now, she and Evelyn’s stepdad are working with Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust to improve CAMHS, and changes have taken place.
They are very keen to see changes made in health trusts across the UK.
Mrs Swift said: “We’ve worked with amazing professionals and Evelyn came into contact with some incredible practitioners but sadly they are working in a system that is broken.
“I mean the crisis team is a really good example of that, where we are the crisis team is commissioned until 7pm.
“Most of Evelyn’s crises happened at nighttime you know and that’s the same for a lot of young people. When their head touches the pillow, thoughts go through their head of what happened that day, reliving certain conversations, feeling more alone in the dark and they struggle more in the evening.
“So within the crisis team we came across brilliant practitioners, but they weren’t commissioned between 7pm at night and 9am the next morning.
“So there was a big period where actually the support wasn’t there but it wasn’t the fault of those practitioners.”
She was referred to the eating disorder team but she was initially rejected before then eventually being accepted.
And after being discharged from a mental health hospital, Evelyn did not receive the after-care and support she should have been given.
Mrs Swift says that during the inquest into her daughter’s death the coroner referred to these problems as missed opportunities where Evelyn could have had earlier support.
Now, she and Evelyn’s stepdad are working with Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust to improve CAMHS, and changes have taken place.
They are very keen to see changes made in health trusts across the UK.
Mrs Swift said: “We’ve worked with amazing professionals and Evelyn came into contact with some incredible practitioners but sadly they are working in a system that is broken.
“I mean the crisis team is a really good example of that, where we are the crisis team is commissioned until 7pm.
“Most of Evelyn’s crises happened at nighttime you know and that’s the same for a lot of young people. When their head touches the pillow, thoughts go through their head of what happened that day, reliving certain conversations, feeling more alone in the dark and they struggle more in the evening.
“So within the crisis team we came across brilliant practitioners, but they weren’t commissioned between 7pm at night and 9am the next morning.
“So there was a big period where actually the support wasn’t there but it wasn’t the fault of those practitioners.”
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When asked what is needed to fix the system, Evelyn’s stepdad said: “There should be mandatory mental health training for healthcare professionals. That would be a good start.
“We also think 24-hour crisis support is needed across the whole country.”
Mrs Swift added: “A and E is the big one where I’d say there’s very little understanding of mental health issues.
“But there’s nowhere else for young people to go when they’re in a crisis if there’s no crisis support.
“The thresholds for support are also a real barrier for young people. I know that in Lincolnshire that’s something they are looking at addressing.
“I don’t know if they’re doing that nationwide, but Evelyn felt very rejected when she didn’t meet a certain threshold to get the support.”
Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust offered their “deepest condolences” following Evelyn’s death and are “committed” to improving mental health resources.
Eve, Baird, Chief Operating Officer at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: “We continue to express our deepest condolences over Evelyn’s passing. This tragic event has reinforced our commitment to improving mental health support for young people in our community and we are grateful to Jenni and Jack for their continued support in our transformation programme.
“As part of the work we have been doing, we now offer a 24/7 crisis helpline for young people, their families and carers, as well as 24/7 support in local emergency departments for people presenting in crisis. We continue to work with our commissioners on being able to provide support in someone’s home outside the current operating hours of seven days a week, 8.45am to 7pm.
“We are aware that the family were given inaccurate information about when and how they could access our support and so, as part of our transformation work, we have worked with colleagues across primary care and education to promote understanding of the variety of services we can offer. Children and young people can also now self-refer or receive help and guidance via our 24/7 Here4You helpline.
“We are looking at all our support pathways for children and young people, to ensure we can offer care and advice at the earliest opportunity, at a time and place that works for them, and have been investing in our teams to help tackle the longer than we would like waiting times – and we are starting to see positive improvements.”
After Evelyn’s death, her mum and stepdad set up a community initiative called Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect, and they carry out random acts of kindness in her memory.
They are also working with the suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) to ensure people know how to talk to their children about suicide.
As part of this, they worked with CALM on a film called Evelyn. Narrated by Mrs Swift, it explores the devastating impact of youth suicide on families.
They are also backing the charity’s CARE kit, a free online resource designed to equip people with practical suicide prevention skills.
It takes people through four steps – Check in, Ask how they are, Remain close and Expert help – and includes conversation practice and guidance on how to keep a young person in crisis safe.
