How was this allowed to happen...

Look this is what I do for a living and frankly this thread is one of the worst I've seen on here if I'm honest, there are some disgusting comments.

Given your experience you should know how difficult it is to get information once someone cuts you off. At the point she did this, she may have been deemed by CMHT to have capacity and then the period of estrangement begins. They are adults, not someone's property. Much of the comments above seem to be of the assumption that the family knew that she was in a bad way etc. etc... sorry but they wouldn't have been privy to that.

It is clear from the reports that this should have been picked up by authorities. She should have been on a CTO and monitored regularly by nurses etc but she's fallen through the net. It is horrible.

Imagine a family member being deemed as having capacity to cut you off, you have no means to force them to interact with you or check on them, check with authorities how they're doing.... then to top it off you have judgmental arseholes like the above making comments like that about you when they know absolutely nothing about MHA, MCA, GDPR etc etc...

If a loved one of mine had died in these circumstances I'm pretty sure i'd be taking legal action too, and anyone above saying they wouldn't is a ******* liar.

That's all I have to say on this. I am sorry you had to go through what you did with your sister. My anger isn't directed at you, @Tekkytyke by the way.

 

Thank you.
It is many years ago now and time, as they say, is a healer. My sister, in her good periods could 'charm the birds from the trees' . She was also very capable and held numerous well paid jobs at times then ended up on benefits at others. Nevertheless, she was very manipulative and could be irrational... ultimately determined to go into a 'closed order' Catholic convent (having previously been anti religion)... After a few months she left having told the mother superior to 'eff off!' which would have been funny if it was not so serious. She left there with one suitcase full of clothes (all black) having previously given all her money and possessions to the church and phoned us from Kings Cross with nowhere else to go.

Hence she came to live with us for a turbulent few months (my wife was a saint) until she managed to get a flat nearby. She seemed settled and her mood swings were less extreme. The weeks leading to her death she was calm and content (she had already determined what she was going to do. Perhaps, and that is what I still think about, I should have 'smelled a rat' and kept more of an eye on her. That said we saw a lot of her over that Christmas time and she seemed happy. She took the overdose on the New Years Eve.