Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2019

Brian Goodman

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2019-0129A, written 17 Apr 2019. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report17 Apr 2019
Reference2019-0129A
DeceasedBrian Goodman
CoronerSarah Bourke
Coroner areaInner North London
CategoryCommunity health care
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published1

The report

Text recovered by OCR from a scanned PDF. OCR is imperfect: check anything you rely on against the source PDF. Reproduced verbatim, including the scan's own layout.

Coroner ME Hassell
HM Senior Coroner
Inner North London

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO:

Group Director of Housing Care & Support
One Housing Group

100 Chalk Farm Road

London

NW1 8EH

CORONER

tam: Assistant Coroner Sarah Bourke
Inner North London
St Pancras Coroner's Court
Camley Street
London
N1C 4PP

CORONER’S LEGAL POWERS

I make this report under paragraph 7, Schedule 5, of the Coroners and Justice
Act 2009 and Regulations 28 and 29 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations
2013.

INVESTIGATION and INQUEST

On 21 November 2018 Assistant Coroner Brittain commenced an investigation

into the death of Brian Goodman (aged 76 years). The investigation concluded
at the end of the inquest on 12 March 2019.

The conclusion of the inquest was that: Mr Goodman hanged himself on 9
November 2018.

The medical cause of his death was: 1a suspension

|_| recorded a short-form conclusion of suicide.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH

Mr Goodman had a diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder with
depression. He had attempted to end his life on a number of occasions. A
number of methods had been used in these attempts, including hanging. In
2016, he moved int ci iis which is managed by
One Support. In addition to support from One Support, Mr Goodman was a
regular user of services provided by MIND in Camden. Mr Goodman had
frequent contact with One Support staff who noted that he had a tendency to
ruminate about past events and would express thoughts of wanting to “end it
all”. In May 2018, MIND employees became aware that Mr Goodman had tied a
scarf around his neck with the intention of hanging himself but had not gone
through with this. One Support staff were informed. The matter was discussed
with Mr Goodman. The rail was moved from Mr Goodman’s wardrobe as it was
recognised to be a potential ligature point. On 8 November 2018, MIND
informed workers at One Support that Mr Goodman had told a volunteer that
he bought a rope in order to hang himself. This was discussed with Mr
Goodman who agreed that his room could be searched. No rope was found. On
9 November 2018, staff found Mr Goodman hanging from the door closing
mechanism to his room during the morning welfare check.

CORONER’S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to
concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless
action is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. —

(1) Mr Goodman expressed thoughts of hanging himself in May and November
2018. He also had a history of attempting suicide by hanging.

(2) Whilst Mr Goodman’s wardrobe rail was recognised to be an obvious
ligature point and removed in May 2018, no steps were taken to change the
door closing mechanism in his room which could also be used as a ligature
point.

(3) The same type of door closing mechanisms continue to be used in One
Support properties.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and | believe you
and your organisation have the power to take such action.

YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date of this
report, namely by 15 June 2019. |, the coroner, may extend the period.

Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken,
setting out the timetable for action. Otherwise you must explain why no action
is proposed.

COPIES and PUBLICATION

| have sent a copy of my report to the Chief Coroner and to the following

Interested Persons: EN daughter)
| am also under a duty to send the Chief Coroner a copy of your response.

The Chief Coroner may publish either or both in a complete or redacted or
summary form. He may send a copy of this report to any person who he
believes may find it useful or of interest. You may make representations to me,
the coroner, at the time of your response, about the release or the publication
of your response by the Chief Coroner.

4M. CORO

eT H LON

Assistant Coroner
17 April 2019

Responses

1 response published against this report on judiciary.uk. A response is a body's written reply to the coroner's concerns; publication is at the discretion of the Chief Coroner's office, so an absent response does not mean nobody replied.

Response from One Housing (PDF)
Lor

NE
oT ix HOUSING

LIVING BETTER

8 July 2019

Head office

100 Chalk Farm Road
London NW1 8EH

Assistant Coroner Sarah Bourke
Inner North London
St Pancras Coroner's Court

Camley Street Customer line: 0300 123 9966
London Reception: 020 7428 4190
N1C 4PP onehousing.co.uk

Dear Sarah Bourke
Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths (Brian Goodman)

We are in receipt of the report dated 17 April 2019 and apologise for the delay in responding as we
did not receive the original correspondence.

We note your concerns and confirm the following actions we are putting in place;

e The door closing mechanisms referred to continue to be widely used in care and support
services, not only run by One Housing. These are in place on fire doors. We will work with
our property services division to look at alternative closures for fire doors in our schemes
where there is a higher risk of suicide. We are not in a position to be able to guarantee that
all our supported housing schemes will be fully anti-ligature as we have to balance this with
our responsibility as a landlord in terms of fire risk.

e We currently run Suicide Awareness Training every 2 months for our staff. We are now
putting in place running Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) which is more
advanced for a group of staff across our range of services.

e Both points are being actioned with immediate effect.

Yours sincerely

Group Director Health Care and Support

One Housing Group Limited is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.
Registration number: 20453R. Homes and Communities Agency number: LH0171. Registered office: 100 Chalk Farm Road,
London NW1 8EH.

Related reports

Other reports by Sarah Bourke

See all →

More reports categorised “Community health care”

See all →

Track Community health care

See every Prevention of Future Deaths report matching Community health care, and how often a new one appears.

What would an alert for this have sent me? Search the full text

Free to try — the preview shows the real matches and how many arrived in the last 12 months. Your first email alert is free.

These reports are published by the Chief Coroner's office at judiciary.uk and are © Crown copyright. The text here is reproduced from the published PDF so it can be searched. If something on this page is wrong, or you are a person named in it and want it reviewed, email drcjar@gmail.com and we will act promptly.