Inquest into the Death of Ward

AI-generated summary

Geoffrey Stephen Ward, a 44-year-old involuntary psychiatric patient at Graylands Hospital with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, died by hanging on 20 February 2000. He had been progressing well on antipsychotic medication and was transferred to an open ward (Plaistowe Ward) to facilitate rehabilitation. Following a drinking incident on 15 February and disclosure of suicidal ideation, a management plan was implemented requiring his cooperation to report unsafe feelings. However, on 20 February while alone in his room, he hanged himself with his belt from the door handle. The coroner found the death was suicide and concluded that while the deceased was chronically suicidal, he was not deemed an imminent risk at the time. The coroner acknowledged the tension between maintaining a therapeutic environment that supports rehabilitation and implementing restrictive safety measures, and concluded the clinical judgement made was reasonable given the information available at the time, though in hindsight a more restricted environment might have prevented the death.

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