Lousia Ovington independent investigation report ... - NHS North East

CHAPTER 2 – EVALUATION OF THE HEALTH CARE AND TREATMENT OF
LOUISA OVINGTON
76
COMMENT
The panel noted that the forensic psychology services at Newcastle offered treatment
to both inpatients and outpatients at this time. Psychologist 1 confirmed that it would
have been potentially appropriate for these services to have been involved with Louisa
Ovington on her return to the Newcastle area. However, no referral was made to that
team.
In December 2000 Social Worker 4 noted amongst other issues that Louisa Ovington
was confused about her feelings regarding her father. He offered to arrange
counselling for her, but Louisa Ovington declined this input. Thus, it appears that
her tendency to avoid dealing with difficult issues was continuing. In January 2001,
however, Louisa Ovington told Social Worker 4 that she had been intending to ask to
see a psychologist, but that she wanted to wait and discuss this further at a later date.
Louisa Ovington could have been in receipt of counselling either from a specific
psychological therapies service or more generically from community psychiatric nurses.
She was admitted to the Lambton Ward, Pierremont Unit at Darlington Memorial
Hospital in February 2001, for four days and ten days following this admission Social
Worker 4 received the discharge care plan report which indicated that the staff on the
Pierremont Unit would be referring her for CPN support. This does not appear to have
happened.
In April 2001, Social Worker 4 made further attempts to get psychological support for
Louisa Ovington. It appeared to the panel remarkably difficult for him to get someone
to refer her, as he kept being advised to discuss the matter with different people. It
was unclear why he could not refer her to the psychology department himself. In the
end he asked Louisa Ovington’s GP to refer her to the Psychological Therapies Team
(PTT). However, at the end of April 2001, he learnt that she was to be offered CPN
input from the Barnfield Centre.
It appears that by June 2001 Louisa Ovington had still not seen a CPN (there was some
argument about whether she fell into the catchment area for the Barnfield Centre)
and Social Worker 4 was concerned that she continued to be extremely upset about
issues to do with her mother’s death. He said that she was very angry with herself
and that she needed a great deal of help. He checked whether Louisa Ovington’s
GP had referred her to the PTT, but was told that the matter had been passed on
to Consultant 15. He therefore discussed her with Cruse bereavement counselling
service. They said that Louisa Ovington needed to refer herself to them – but once
again, Louisa Ovington said that she would do this “when she was ready” and it
appears that she never did so.