Essex mental health Inquiry investigating "thousands" of deaths recommences
"This is about finding out the truth, saving lives and trying to help other families" says lead campaigner
An Essex mental health Inquiry investigating the deaths of "thousands" of patients is recommencing on 28 April 2025 for three weeks of public hearings.
The Lampard Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Lampard, was set up to investigate the deaths of "at least" 2000 patients who died under the care of the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT).
Baroness Lampard told the Inquiry in September she expects the figure to be "significantly more" than 2000.
Lead campaigner for the Inquiry, Melanie Leahy, tells Greatest Hits Radio "it goes far beyond Essex".
"This is about finding out the truth, saving lives and trying to help other families."
Ms Leahy's son, Matthew, was found unconscious on the 25th April 2025, just seven days after being admitted to the Linden Centre in Broomfield.
The twenty-year-old had been under the care of the Early Intervention in Psychosis team operated by one of EPUT's predecessor organisations, the North Essex Partnership NHS Trust (NEP).
Days before his death he reported he had been raped while in the unit, but following a visit the police took no further action.
Following the allegations, staff did not follow the trust's own policy and it emerged his care plan had been falsified.
Ms Leahy says: "I was just a mum, my son was clearly not well, and he had asked for help.
"I struggled to get that help. When you're a parent struggling, you cry out for help.
"When Matthew died, I started to fight to find out what happened because within three weeks of him in dying, I knew that paperwork wasn't right.
"It came to light that paperwork had been falsified, paperwork had been destroyed and I had been lied to."
An ombudsman's report in 2020 stated NEP failed to "properly allocate a key worker to Matthew."
It also did not give him an effective care plan, engage with him consistently, manage observations appropriately, or do enough to look after his physical health.
Melanie Leahy says she wants the inquiry to use its enhanced powers to obtain documents that she has still not seen.
"I went on a journey like any parent would. You fight for your child. You fight when they're alive. And when they die you fight even harder because you want to know why and who was responsible.
"13 years on, that's where I'm at.
"I had no idea that one death would bring in 2000 plus more.
"I've been ridiculed. I've been threatened with my own life. I've had parents saying, why don't you just put it to bed? I've had family even say' you've had a year get over it'".
"Days that I think I'll just stop and give up, you hear another death. Only a few days ago, it seems that we've lost another young patient.
"This is Matthew's campaign. He was a caring soul. He wanted to help other people. That's just the journey I'm on now and it's become bigger than just Matthew."
The North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), which provides child and adolescent mental health services in parts of Essex and will also be examined in the inquiry, said: "We will continue to work with the inquiry to help families understand the circumstances surrounding the loss of their loved ones.
"Patient safety is our absolute priority and we are committed to learning from the work of the inquiry."