Tributes to Driffield teen Chloe Barber as inquest concludes
Tributes have been paid to a young Driffield woman who took her own life as an inquest highlights a series of concerns around wider support and care.
Chloe Barber died in November 2021, after discharging herself from mental health services when she turned 18.
Now a coroner is to issue a formal report, warning there needs to be a clearer pathway for care when it comes to switching between children’s mental health and adult services.
Hull coroner Prof Paul Marks, the BBC reports, said it was “probable there was no realistic opportunity to prevent her death”.
Despite this, he warned there was not a “clear path” for patients to transition care.
As her family paid tribute to a “bright, brilliant and beautiful” young woman, they remember happier times for Chloe, who was always singing and dancing.
“She was a gifted artist and loved drawing, and we always proudly displayed her artwork on the walls of our family home,” said her family in a statement through Hudgell Solicitors.
“Our hearts have been broken beyond repair since she left us, but we are so proud of Chloe and grateful for the time we had her in our lives.”
Chloe was first referred to children's services CAMHS in 2017, her family has outlined, struggling after suffering serious bullying which was reported to police.
Over the following four years, they claim, she was "passed from pillar to post" with a series of hospital and mental health unit admissions.
Aged 17, she was discharged from hospital and returned home in July 2021, set to transfer to adult mental health services. She died in the November.
She had struggled to engage with services in the community, the family's solicitors have said, and her case had been closed by both CAMHS and the CENS. Adult social care had also declined to accept an earlier referral, they claimed.
Later reports, they added, including a Serious Incident report by Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust and an independent Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR), had identified a series of missed opportunities around assessments and plans. There was "confusion" around her medication, while the local authority should have accepted Chloe's referral, and re-referred her when she turned 18.
The senior coroner Prof Marks, is now to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths Report. It could not be concluded that these failures “more than minimally” contributed to Chloe's death, he stressed, but the cessation of her medication may have impacted her mood.
His report is to highlight concerns over a clear path nationwide for transition between CAMHS and adult services, as well as the administration of medication.
Chloe’s family, in a statement, remembered a “wonderful young lady” who loved to dance and to shop and was devoted to her dog Chester.
“It’s difficult to put into words the kind of person Chloe was,” they said. “She was amazing, bright, brilliant, beautiful, caring and stubborn.”