Jade McGrath's mum calls for improved psychiatric care across Scotland
Samantha Taylor feels her nationwide concerns must be addressed
The mum of a Highland teenager who was found dead after vanishing from a psychiatric hospital is urging the Scottish Government to improve facilities across the country.
19-year-old Jade McGrath went missing in November 2018 while she was a patient at New Craigs.
She was found near the hospital 11 days later after taking her own life.
Samantha Taylor, from Carrbridge, says she's determined to raise awareness on the level of care provided by psychiatric hospitals in Scotland.
'Toxic' culture at New Craigs - Samantha Taylor
After being bullied while in school, Jade was suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and after becoming increasingly worried about her safety it was decided to admit her to New Craigs Hospital in November 2018.
However, after only being a patient there for around two days she went missing from the hospital.
At the time, her father was visiting Jade at the facility with mum Samantha unhappy with the level of urgency and care shown towards her daughter from staff.
Jade was found more than 10 days later by children playing in nearby woodlands.
More than four years later, her family have now received an apology and a pay-out from NHS Highland.
But Samantha's still to receive a direct apology from individual staff looking after Jade and anecdotal stories coming from New Craigs concern her greatly.
She said: "She wasn't safe in that hospital, and if I'd known then what I know now I would've realised that it wasn't any safer to put her there than it was to keep her at home.
"There's something wrong with the culture, in that place. I think there is a toxic culture."
"If it saves one single life in the whole country then it's worth the effort"
Samantha's speaking out in the hope what happened to Jade, won't happen to anyone else.
She added: "A lot of people who go through any type of loss or loss of a loved one especially if it's tragic the most you can hope for is that you find some meaning in their loss.
"I would give anything to bring her back, but I can't.
"The only thing I can do now is hopefully prevent this sort of thing happening again, even if I only help to stop it from happening to one single person.
"If it saves one single life in the whole country then it's worth the effort.
"We need to bring this to light, so that hopefully there can be some proper changes made.
"Both at New Craigs and at other psychiatric hospitals in the country which have similar stores.
"Perhaps with enough awareness there might be some change in the management, but also again on a bigger scale, the Scottish Government needs to step up and sort out these hospitals.
"They need to do more."
NHS Highland say they're working on delivering recommendations from the review which followed Jade's death.
A spokesperson said: "We are really sorry that we did not meet the standards that should have been expected in relation to the tragic case of Jade McGrath.
"We take seriously our responsibility to learn from such events and we therefore carried out a review and we are working on delivering the key recommendations contained within that review."
Mental wellbeing minster Maree Todd says the Scottish Government are taking a new approach to suicide prevention through a new national strategy.
She said: "Firstly, I want to extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family of Jade McGrath. Every death by suicide is a tragedy and, while the number of deaths has fallen in recent years, I want to use every lever at our disposal to drive that down further.
"We jointly published a new Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan with COSLA in September 2022, taking a new approach to suicide prevention – considering all the social issues that can lead people to feel suicidal, while supporting those contemplating suicide and their loved ones.
“Our ambitions are supported by record funding through the Programme for Government commitment to double the annual budget to £2.8 million by 2025-2026.”