http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/03/prisonsandprobation.mentalhealth
The short and desperate life of Petra, the girl nobody helped
Petra Blanksby killed herself aged 19 after she was jailed for arson -
she had tried to burn herself following years of abuse. Now the coroner
at her inquest is urging changes in the prison service. By Jamie Doward
[This article appeared in the Observer
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver> on Sunday February 03 2008
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/feb/03> on p20 of the News
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2008/feb/03/news/uknews> section.]
Petra Blanksby was 19 when she committed suicide in prison, leaving
behind an 18-month-old son and haunting questions about the treatment of
mentally ill women who end up in a criminal justice system poorly
equipped to cope with their complex problems.
<snip>
Just after 4pm on 7 July, 2003, Petra phoned Derbyshire's community
psychiatric team. She told them she had cut her wrists by smashing her
hands through the window of her flat. When the team arrived, they found
Petra had tried to gas herself. But no one reassessed her mental state.
One team member told the inquest the team had known her condition was
considered untreatable, so there was no point. 'It beggars belief that a
cry for help that loud was ignored,' said Leslie Thomas, the barrister
acting for Petra's family.
Petra's plight is not uncommon, according to experts. 'We have received
a huge increase in calls to our helpline from people with borderline
personality disorder who cannot get help,' said Marjorie Wallace, chief
executive of the mental health charity, Sane. 'It's usually linked to
their childhood and triggered by a fear of abandonment.'
Wallace said because the condition was often classed as 'untreatable'
sufferers did not 'tick the boxes' of mental health teams, which meant
they often received no help. 'It's not treatable by medication,' she
said. 'And you can't have quick shots of cognitive therapy. But we
believe people can be helped. They need an almost immediate response
when their emotions get out of control.'
<snip>
She draws a comparison between herself and her sister. 'Petra wasn't
offered the same services as me,' Kirsty said. 'I went to a therapeutic
community and spent a year with people who had time for me. But Petra
was offered nothing. They said they could do nothing for her. She was
just a number, not a person.'
Last week the coroner David Hinchliff took a similar view, returning a
verdict that noted prison was 'not a suitable place' for Petra and that
the sexual and emotional abuse she suffered while in the care of social
services had contributed to her fragile mental state. Since her death,
29 women have suffered self-inflicted deaths in Britain's prisons. The
number will rise to 30 if a woman currently being kept alive on a life
support machine doesn't pull through. If not, the death certificate will
be tragically familiar. Cause of death: self-asphyxiation, HMP New Hall.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/03/prisonsandprobation.mentalhealth
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