on be other of manipulating japan of manipulating its currency japan of manipulating its spine—11,4 bbc it japan of manipulating its curiae—nay bbc it is for panorama. i literally am sitting on the chair that my son died in. and how, despite five years of government promises... if you suffer from mental health problems, there's not enough help to hand. ?:§if?

performing health trust. imagine waking up every day and almost tossing a coin to go upstairs to see whether your own flesh and blood is still alive. on the 14th of november, sheila preston's son leo was found dead following a suspected accidental overdose. i met her on herfirst visit to his flat just four days later. this is leo. this is leo here. he was probably 12 years old there. and he was the most beautiful, kind, loving son. i was proud of him. and he should still be here in this flat today. i wanted to save him.

look at this... the 39—year—old had been treated for schizophrenia look at that. would you want to cook on that? leo had been a patient of the norfolk and suffolk foundation trust, the only mental health trust to be placed in special measures in the history of the nhs. i begged. i begged the trust to help him, but they thought he was living well, he was, you know, managing.

but i knew that he wasn't. i knew that he would just get iller and iller and iller. and he died. when they came to tell me, i was not surprised. i was expecting it. an unexpected patient deaths ever of death, so they can include suicide, accidental overdoses, and also neglect. we have results from 33 of the 57 trusts. the data is complex because different parts of the country collect it in slightly different ways, but what our figures show is a clear trend suggesting that unexpected deaths have risen by nearly half in the last three years. that's 1,000 additional deaths last year in those 33 trusts alone.

these horrifying figures come despite years of government pledges to prioritise mental health. just last month, theresa may gave a major speech promising to revolutionise care. i want us to employ the power of government as a force for good to transform the way we deal with mental health problems, right across society and at every stage of life. no matter what pledges are made by central government, it's local areas that decide where to spend the bulk of the money. the difficulty is making the connection between announcements at national level and money actually showing up at local level to buy more staff, to buy more care and really for patients

to see the difference. and with the whole nhs under unprecedented pressure, many areas have decided they can't afford to put it into mental health. for patients and what kind of impact they're having. quite a few of them seem to be about saving money. the norfolk and suffolk foundation trust was one of the first to attempt a wholesale restructuring of its services. in 2013, faced with cuts of 20%, the trust introduced a series of dramatic changes, frontline community teams were disbanded, experienced staff laid off and case loads rocketed. since then, unexpected deaths have nearly doubled, rising to 157 last year. sheila's son leo was one of those deaths. before the changes, leo was seen

at least once a week. after the changes, i asked his nurse and she hadn't seem him for four weeks. a 2016 inspection of the trust found that staffing levels were "not always sufficient in community teams" with one lead care professional being allocated 95 patients. the idea that people would be better living in the community is a very good idea, but the support is not there to help them maintain their health. and ! knowlknnwti‘at“x a" , good people in the trust, know

that my son could have been saved. at the time the trust introduced the changes, emma corlett had worked as a mental health nurse in norfolk for 17 years while terry skyrme had been a social worker in the area for nearly two decades. both were also union reps. they were forced to make cuts by the nhs. we had a homeless team in norwich that was closed immediately. instead of outreach teams, they were set up in the mid—905 because of all the problems in mental health, very serious specialist teams, they decided to close both of them down immediately. so they were the teams that supported people with the greatest

level of vulnerability and greatest level of risk. this is a risk in the community is it? or is this a risk in hospital? i'd say it's both. we lost beds and cut community services. and because of the budget pressures, everything ended up being done really, really quickly. we had people turning up at office asking to see their worker, not realising that their worker had gone. so it was a recipe for disaster from the start. no more cuts! no more deaths! after more than a year of raising concerns through official channels, terry and emma formed what claims to be the largest grass—roots local mental health campaign in the country, with over 2,300 supporters. the trust followed the activities of the campaign closely. they put so much effort into trying to silence us and discredit

the campaign that they should have been putting into keeping people safe. do you have evidence of that? we've got a series of e—mails. there's this one here saying the chief executive and i had a brief discussion last week and i think it would be helpful to talk about terry skyrme and his current actions, i don't see how we can continue to leave him in post. some people in management think like that, don't they? they don't. .. you're supposed to do as you're told, not protest, not stand out and certainly not publicise things. it fits with the culture of the organisation. terry left the trust in 2014, while emma stayed in her post until april of last year. we had three years of trying to improve things. and also, nursing is a great career, but you only get one life. so ijust decided to leave. in 2015, the norfolk

and suffolk trust was put into special measures after inspectors raised concerns over safety, staffing shortages and a lack of beds. over the two years i've been investigating this story, numerous health professionals have told me of their concerns about bed shortages. on condition of strietanenymitye there's been a huge rise in unexpected deaths across the area and no—one seems willing to acknowledge it's a result of the cuts. can you tell me, what has happened with hospital beds? a few years ago, it was possible most of the time to access a local bed. but that's not the case now. it hasn't been the case for three orfour years. if there are not beds, there's no purpose in attending the address and agitating the person by carrying out an assessment. so i'm asking relatives to carry on looking after someone under great

stress with the possibility that if that person is suicidal, they may complete a suicide while they're waiting for a bed, which is very distressing for the carers and for me as a worker. overall, how do you feel about the trust's services its providing? i would say they're inadequate, unsafe and a disgrace to a so—called civilised society. recently the norfolk and suffolk trust came out of special measures, despite the numbers of unexpected deaths continuing to rise. between 2012 and 2016 the trust closed 136 psychiatric beds, a cut of about a quarter, even though demand continues