Call for change after mental health calls 'ignored'

The family of a woman from Southampton who took her own life has called for better logging of calls to the NHS about mental health.

Ava Randle said she repeatedly phoned GP and non-emergency lines to ask for help with her mother, Keren, who died in 2021.

But at her inquest she realised the calls appeared to not have been formally recorded, leaving her feeling "ignored".

South Central Ambulance Service, which runs Hampshire's 111 service, said it agreed there were "opportunities to enhance the co-ordination of information across services".

In 2017 Keren was being treated for depression, but a few years later she had stopped receiving mental health care and was living on her own.

She would often tell health professionals she did not need help, but her family said they saw a different side to her and believed she had a form of undiagnosed psychosis.

"There was a lot of thinking that people were out to harm her. There was a complete switch in her behaviour overall," said Ava.

Keren's son Owain said he would also regularly contact her GP surgery and the non-emergency service 111 asking for checks to be made.

"I'd think, this alarm is being raised regularly now," he said. "I just thought… that it would have accumulated into some kind of action."

Keren was 54 when she took her own life in August 2021.

During the inquest process, Ava and her family realised there was very little mention of the calls they had made.

"I just think we weren't listened to and we were ignored consistently," she said.

"It did feel pointless at times," Owain added. "It felt futile because just nothing was happening, and that's really hard."

A report in December 2025 by Parliament's Health and Social Care Committee heard evidence about families being left "in the dark".

"Friends and family will raise the alarm and feel they've got nowhere to go, which is so similar to what this story is telling us," said Oxfordshire MP Layla Moran, the committee's chair.

"It's simply not good enough. Too many people are falling through the cracks."

Charity Rethink Mental Illness said it received numerous calls from members of the public asking how they could get professional help for loved ones.

The organisation's deputy chief executive, Brian Dow, said loved ones were "often the first person to notice when something is going wrong".

"It's the role of health professionals working with families, and other organisations, to try to get that practice right," he said.

"I worry about whether this will happen to other families," said Ava. "Hopefully there can be changes, even if it's small changes."

The group that runs GP surgeries in Southampton did not respond to a request for comment.

South Central Ambulance Service said it had asked to meet with Ava to discuss the issues she has raised.

It said it worked "closely with local NHS partners to improve how appropriate information from 111 calls is shared to help patients get the care they need".

Since Keren's death it also now had a dedicated mental health service that callers could access, it added.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was giving extra funding for mental health services, including hiring 8,500 additional mental health workers.

It added that the Mental Health Act, which aims to involve families more in decision making around treatment plans, was awaiting Royal Assent.

• If you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.