Laura Kate Corkin, 43, tragically died on May 10 – just two days after her birthday – and was found by her fiancé in her Lancashire home, an inquest was told
A mum of three took her own life after waiting a month for mental health support – despite the time frame being five days.
Laura Kate Corkin, 43, tragically died on May 10 – just two days after her birthday – and was found by her fiancé in her Lancashire home.
An inquest was told the mum-of-three had struggled with her mental health for a while and had to spoke to her GP regarding the issue.
According to her family, Laura was recovering from a hip operation and was worried about money due to her not working.
At the start of the year her family became worried about her after she became less frequent on social media and contacted her GP.
Laura was referred to Haslingden Healthcare for a routine appointment regarding her mental health on March 29 – and should have been within five days.
However, she was tragically not contacted in the five-day period.
Jacqueline Latham, a service manager for the urgent care pathway within the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust, told the inquest staffing levels were low at the time of her referral.
A second GP made an urgent referral on April 26 and Laura was eventually contacted by the mental health services.
She was phoned at the weekend but Laura was spending time with her children and told them to contact her when they weren’t there on May 3.
Laura had been in contact with the services and considered going to a retreat to help people struggling with their mental health.
She then had no contact with the team as she was away with her friends for her birthday.
Laura said she would get back in contact with the mental health team on May 10.
However, when a worker visited Laura’s home on May 10 at around 3.30pm, she didn’t answer.
Just a few hours later, Laura’s fiancé returned back to her house but tragically found a note and discovered Laura’s body.
Had Laura been contacted in the five days when she was referred in March would things have been different, her family asked.
Coroner Kate Bissett said it was impossible to know whether this would have made a difference as she returned a verdict of suicide.
Ms Bissett said: “Had that have gone through before, she could have been here today.
“We will never know whether it [earlier intervention] could have made a difference.”
The coroner added: “If Laura went there [mental health services] today, she would not have been waiting the month that she did.”
A spokesperson for Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft), told Lancashire Telegraph : “We accept the findings and recommendations of HM Coroner during the inquest of Laura Corkin’s and reiterate our condolences to her family.
“Following Laura’s death, we launched a thorough investigation, and have identified and implemented learning.
“We accept that the waiting time for a referral response was longer than we would have hoped, due to significant increased demand.
“We have put an improvement plan in place to ensure we can meet this increased demand and the team who take these are now working well within key targets for both urgent and routine referrals.
“This remains under regular review as part of standard governance arrangements.”
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