Schizophrenic woman, 38, lay dead in social housing for nearly four years before her body was found in 'mummified state' with 'I need help' scrawled on her calendar
EXCLUSIVE: Laura Winham (left) is thought to have died in her flat in Woking, Surrey (right), in November 2017, but she was only discovered in May 2021 when family urged police to break in. The troubled woman's heartbroken family reluctantly kept away because her schizophrenia had caused her to believe they would harm her. Now her devastated relatives are demanding to know how social services and health teams could have missed so many warning signs, ahead of a pre-inquest review next week.
Firstly, we live in a world where the role of families becomes so much more important. There is no milkman, no paper boy, no local shop, no local Bank. We increasingly live in a World where, in order to increase profits, no-one cares.
Secondly, families have changed. People just do not care the way they used to. It's not the young. It is all ages that fail to do things that the last generation did.
Although I agree in general that family should take more care of their own I think we may be being a little too harsh in this case. It looks like the family had been in contact but her mental health problems were so severe that she believed they were trying to harm her. How much contact would you have with a relative if every time you saw them you scared the life out of them? I can understand their reluctance to keep putting her through that.
This is exactly the sort of case that Social Services SHOULD be heavily involved in and they weren't. In my opinion it's the sort of situation where she should have been sectioned, she obviously couldn't care for herself and should have been in hospital or a secure unit, being looked after.
I think the family failed in that they didn't continue to push Social Services to make sure she was looked after, but dealing with SS is an absolute nightmare at the best of times and in a case where the lady may well have instructed them not to liaise with her family would have been impossible.
Her brother and mother spotted her foot under a blanket, yet no one else did, despite numerous visits, no neighbours looked in either, it's a damning indictment of our society as a whole, not just the family.
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https://uk.yahoo.com/news/woman-lay-dead-surrey-flat-193419020.html
EXCLUSIVE: Laura Winham (left) is thought to have died in her flat in Woking, Surrey (right), in November 2017, but she was only discovered in May 2021 when family urged police to break in. The troubled woman's heartbroken family reluctantly kept away because her schizophrenia had caused her to believe they would harm her. Now her devastated relatives are demanding to know how social services and health teams could have missed so many warning signs, ahead of a pre-inquest review next week.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11679975/EXCLUSIVE-Schizophrenic-woman-38-lay-dead-social-housing-nearly-four-years.html
Her family did not contact this poor woman for over 3 1/2 years. Not even to check she was still alive.
And yet feel able to instruct Solicitors, and criticise the various authorities for similarly failing her.
Me? I'd be too busy feeling ashamed of myself.
@Essexphil
EXACTLY my reaction.
It used to be the case that family used to be responsible for looking after each other, now they very often blame the Government.
The first responsibility here was with her sister, & wider family.
We know finger-pointing is becoming the norm, but that does not make it right, it's so easy to blame others.
Firstly, we live in a world where the role of families becomes so much more important. There is no milkman, no paper boy, no local shop, no local Bank. We increasingly live in a World where, in order to increase profits, no-one cares.
Secondly, families have changed. People just do not care the way they used to. It's not the young. It is all ages that fail to do things that the last generation did.
This is exactly the sort of case that Social Services SHOULD be heavily involved in and they weren't. In my opinion it's the sort of situation where she should have been sectioned, she obviously couldn't care for herself and should have been in hospital or a secure unit, being looked after.
I think the family failed in that they didn't continue to push Social Services to make sure she was looked after, but dealing with SS is an absolute nightmare at the best of times and in a case where the lady may well have instructed them not to liaise with her family would have been impossible.
Her brother and mother spotted her foot under a blanket, yet no one else did, despite numerous visits, no neighbours looked in either, it's a damning indictment of our society as a whole, not just the family.
@Enut is correct, there was more to this than I realised.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-64431776