The Supreme Court, the highest appellate court in the land, has ruled that an NHS Trust breached its duty of care by allowing a patient home from a psychiatric unit where she took her own life.
Twenty-year-old Melanie Rabone was found hanged from a tree near her home in 2005. She had been diagnosed with a recurrent depressive disorder, after previously cutting her wrists. In a psychiatric assessment she was deemed a moderate to high suicide risk who might require detention if she attempted to leave the unit.
The case has been greeted positively by mental health charities and civil liberties groups.
Ms Rabone was a voluntary patient at the Stepping Hill psychiatric hospital in Stockport. Critics have argued that psychiatric hospitals had a tendency to show greater care towards those admitted under section than those who admit themselves voluntarily. It is thought that this decision extends the duty of care a hospital owes to its voluntary patients.
In ruling against the Pennine Care NHS Trust, the Supreme Court ruled that they had breached their obligation under article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights which prescribes that "everyone's right to life should be protected by law".
Emma Norton, the legal officer for Liberty, said: "This landmark human rights judgment means that voluntary patients in psychiatric care will finally get the same legal protection as sectioned patients. Hospitals rightly acknowledge their serious duties to detained people, why should those who have asked for help be any different?"
Jodie Blackstock of charity, Justice added: "In this case the Supreme Court has not only acknowledged that through the convention the state holds a responsibility for those in its care to whom there is a real and immediate risk of death, but when it fails in that duty, parents should be entitled to vindicate their loss also."
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