Three years after Dundee man took own life niece fears NHS services won't improve
David Ramsay died days after being turned away by the city's Carseview Centre in October 2016
Three years after a Dundee man took his own life, his neice is telling Tay News she fears the quality of mental health services in Tayside will never change.
David Ramsay died days after being turned away by the city's Carseview Centre.
An NHS specialist found the health board was to blame for his death earlier this year.
But Gillian Murray isn't confident that news will bring change.
"I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel just now. I can't see the health board making changes," she said.
"They are in denial, they can't see people are dying."
This Wednesday will mark the three year anniversary of David's passing. But Gillian feels the pain of losing him is just as strong now as it was when he died.
"I don't think it will matter if it's three years or 30 years. David was a massive part of not just my life but my family's life," she said.
"He was failed. I replay that entire week of begging NHS Tayside in my head."
The family's planning to take civil action against the health board for David's death. Niece Gillian says the process has been draining.
"I wanted to make David's death a legacy to improve mental health services because I could have easily gone the opposite way and hit the self destruct button.
"Trauma changes people, I will never be the same. My family are still broken, we will always be broken."
Susan Scott from mental health charity Perth Plus believes the level of support in the region is as bad as ever.
"The services have deteriorated in the way that people aren't getting the help that they need," she said.
"It wasn't great before, it was possibly starting to improve around 15-years-ago.
"We need to look at mental health support in terms of human development and helping people at an early stage, when they ask for help.
"Not when clinicians think they need help, it's when people ask for it.
"I really don't know any other place (in Scotland) that's doing it any worse than we are as far as our NHS is concerned.
"They're trying to tinker round the edges and a lot of the stuff they say they're doing isn't happening on the ground."
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “As this is a legal matter we are unable to comment. Every suicide is a tragedy and we offer our condolences to the family.”
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