Mia Masie Lucas: Inquest into death of 'happy' 12-year-old girl at Sheffield mental health facility underway
An inquest is underway into the death of a ‘happy’ 12-year-old girl who died four weeks after being placed in a mental health facility in Sheffield.
In September this year, Chloe Hayes explained how her daughter Mia was ‘such a happy girl’ prior to her death almost two years ago.
Today (November 11), the mother from Nottingham sat in the public gallery of Sheffield’s Medico Legal Centre as an inquest began to uncover the circumstances surrounding Mia’s death.
“I know that the next two weeks are going to be impossible for you,” Senior Coroner Tanyka Rawden said to Mia’s family when opening the inquest this morning.
A jury was introduced and chosen in front of the packed-out court as proceedings commenced.
The coroner told jurors how Mia had passed away on January 30, 2023, after being detained under the Mental Health Act at the Becton Centre for Children and Young People in Beighton.
When listening to evidence, she told the jurors to consider Mia’s mental health history, the decision to place her at the Becton Centre, and her care while in Sheffield, including ‘risk assessments around self harm’.
Then, Rebecca Keating - a mental health nurse and Clinical Director at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation - was invited to give evidence.
Mia was treated in Nottingham before being transferred to Sheffield.
“The first contact with our CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) service was on New Year’s Eve 2023 - Mia’s grandma had contacted the CAMHS crisis team expressing concerns about Mia’s behaviour,” she told the court.
She explained how the service tried to speak with Mia, however she was described as ‘too distressed to engage’, and her family was advised to take her to hospital if they felt they were unable to care for her.
Before the clocks struck 12, Mia had been admitted at the emergency department in Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottinghamshire, where plans for a psychiatric assessment and mental health act assessment were made.
Ms Keating explained how the assessment was held on the morning of January 1, 2024, and it was agreed that Mia couldn’t be discharged.
However, she went on to say that most mental health facilities are not equipped for patients under the age of 13, and due to this there were challenges with where Mia could be treated.
She was kept in Nottingham while plans were made, the nurse added, and she explained how ‘there was one occasion where Mia said she was eating better and her eyes were better and she wasn’t seeing scary things’, though she continued to complain about head pain.
Discussions were also held about whether there was a physical cause to these mental health concerns, the nurse explained.
The Becton Centre in Sheffield was seen as an adequate option to care for Mia, and the nurse told the court how following discussions with family Mia was moved on January 9.
She said that the Nottingham CAMHS team kept in touch with Mia so that they could develop a relationship and continue to support her after she was discharged, and that they visited her on January 29.
Tragically, Senior Coroner Rawden explained how that evening Mia was found unresponsive in her room by staff and rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead a day later.
Witnesses from both Nottingham and Sheffield NHS trusts are expected to give evidence, with the inquest set to last for 10 days.