User:Spy-cicle/drafts/Suicide of Abrahart

Natasha Abrahart (1997 or 1998 – 30 April 2018) was an English student at the University of Bristol who committed suicide by hanging in April 2018.

Background
Natasha Abrahart was born in 1997 or 1998. She was a second year physics student at the University of Bristol. Her parents were Robert and Margaret Abrahart and are from West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. She is one of 11 students at the univeristy to commit suicide between October 2016 and August 2018.

Death
In February 2018, Abrahart emailed a student administration manager and informed her she had attempted to commit suicide. Abrahart commited suicide by hanging on 30 April 2018 and died aged 20.

Pre-inquest
In August 2018, at a pre-inquest review panel at Avon Coroner's Court Gus Silverman was the barrister who represented Robert and Margaret Abrahart. Silverman questioned if it was suitable that Abrahart had no contact with the university's well-being service, despite staff in her department knowing she was "in crisis". He went to raise the family's concerns about the behavior of the university's employees and the lack of change in procedures and policies since her death. In addition he said that "The number of recent deaths amongst students at the University of Bristol has been a matter of considerable, and understandable, public concern." A spokesperson for the university responded by provding sympathies to her family and that they will "co-operate fully with the coroner to ensure any lessons learnt are built into the support we provide our students" and that they are "putting in place a structure of preventative services and policies to try and avoid our students reaching crisis point."

The coroner was Maria Voisin, who requested more details from the University of Bristol for the next hearing.

In October 2018, her parents started a crowdfunding page to pay for the legal costs of her inquest with a goal of £50,000. At the time, bereaved families did not receive legal aid provision of inquests but state parties like the university do. In February 2019, they called for national reform for legal aid for bereaved families. They raised £20,000 through crowdfunding and have also used their savings to pay for the £70,000 inquest. The pair spoke at the Houses of Parliament alongside members of the charity Inquest, to call for change.

Inquest
An inquest in to her suicide took place in May 2019.

Her general practitioner (GP) from the university, Dr Emma Webb, felt Abrahart was at a high risk of commiting suicide and saw her Webb Abrahart in February, on 30 March and a final time on 20 April 2018. In February, Abrahart was at an emergency appointment and was described by Webb her in an "acute state of distress". On 20 April, Webb prescribed the antidepressant Sertraline and produced a note to follow up in two weeks, however National Health Service (NHS) advice asserts those at risk of suicide should be seen after one week. She was also referred to the Avon Wiltshire Partnership (AWP) crisis group but when they were unable to contact her.

Also during the inquest, it was reported that Abrahart had posted on a mental health support website saying she felt "distressed" and had "suicidal thoughts". The day before her death, she texted her boyfriend saying "answer now", but he was asleep. Also she searched the phrase "I wish I was dead" a week prior to her death.

Abrahart was referred to the AWP by the university, after attempting to commit suicide on 19 February. A trainee psychiatrist, Dr Annear, on 23 February there gave her a "low risk" assessment. A few days later she tried again to commit suicide. On 5 March, Annear assessed her as "low risk" of self harm after finding her "more engaging", in addition to prescribing her with a weeks' worth of anti-depressants. The report for this part of the inquest was completetd by Dr Mynors-Wallis on behalf of the coroner, Maria Voisin, who said the risk of self harm was not adequately assessed and that her "overall assessment was significantly flawed".

AWP visited her on 22 March but they did not see her again until 26 April. This delay was partially due to an employee whose job was allocate cases was on holiday for two weeks. Her case was not allocated to another worker until he returned.

She attempted to kill herself a total of three times.

On 16 April, a flatmate of Abrahart alerted student services to say she was self-harming. Barbara Perks, an employee at the university, referred her to the student wellbeing manager. On 20 April Abrahart emailed Perks that she was having suicidal thoughts. Shortly after, Perks visted her flat and took both her and her flatmate to the GP, describing her as quiet. On 27 April, in her last contact with her, Perks labelled Abrahart as "quite positive" upon her upcoming lab interviews which caused her significant anxiety. She suggested to her about not getting up in front of the class but she said wanted to do it with the group.