Social worker who took her own life told staff she wouldn't survive outside, hours before she was allowed to leave

Charlotte Faux, who worked with teenagers with eating disorders, wrote a moving letter explaining her wish to end her life and her concerns over the care she was receiving, yet she was allowed to leave the hospital just hours later.

The 26-year-old delivered the letter to a nurse a week after she had tried to kill herself on the ward in Edgware Community Hospital in March 2014, and she explained how keeping herself alive every day was a "constant battle."

She believed she had logical reasons for wanting to end her life and described her fear of being discharged, stressing that she didn't believe she could survive.

But despite this, a few hours later, Ms Faux was allowed to leave the ward hours later to attend a theatre rehearsal, at which she never arrived.

Her parents, Sarah and Martine Faux, believe the authorities failed her daughter in a number of ways.

Mrs Faux said: "They let her out on the day that she died. She had attempted to end her life the week before and she’d told them she wanted to do it again. She was a very determined person in all aspects of her life so if she wanted to do something she would do it.

"I feel like she was let down by everybody. They didn’t do anything to treat her. There was no assessment of what was wrong. If you break your leg you go to hospital and have an assessment and they work out how to treat you – you wouldn’t wait a week to have it assessed.

"She went in and it appears that they effectively babysat her. Charlotte had the first part of an assessment of what might be wrong, but that was because she pushed to have it, because she wanted to get better."

On admission, Ms Faux was assessed as being at moderate to high acute risk of suicide, but days later it was agreed she could go out as long as staff first completed a risk assessment and gave permission.

It was after this that Ms Faux made the first attempt on her life.

On the day she killed herself, no risk assessment was completed prior to her being allowed to leave the hospital.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust has accepted they should not have allowed Charlotte to leave the hospital unescorted, given they had determined that she needed 15 minute observations.

Martin Faux, who will now be pursuing an enquiry with the Care Quality Commission, said: "All we wanted from the trust was for them to be open and honest about their failings, so that they could learn from their mistakes and improve the service for others,that would have been what Charlotte wanted.

"Had the trust been open from the moment Charlotte died, we wouldn’t have had to spend three and half years going down the legal route. Sadly from the very first meeting we had with the clinicians it was clear that they were not going to be open with us."

Mrs Faux continued: "We never went more than a week without seeing Charlotte, and kept in constant contact via text, so we couldn’t believe that she’d been admitted to hospital, we had no idea.

"She thought she was going to get better and she didn’t want us to worry. She told the hospital she didn’t want her family to know. She also told them she didn’t have any friends but she had her closest friends visiting her at hospital.

"It came as a massive shock for us to learn she had been in hospital."

Ms Faux was a talented singer, who had sung with the children's chorus of the English National Opera, the Finchley Children's Music Group, and even performed solo at the Royal Festival Hall as a child.

She had just moved into a new position within social work, having been a former mentor and volunteer leader at Nightline at university, and was set to play Maria in a an amateur production of West Side Story.

Her mother said: "She had always wanted to play that part again as she had done it before at school and loved the role. She loved drama and singing.

"She sung with the children's chorus of the English National Opera, and was a keen member of Finchley Children's Music Group, performing at venues all over the country, even performing solo at the Royal Festival Hall as a child."

Mr and Mrs Faux also feel, despite the trust accepting certain failings, they believe they are still waiting for an official apology from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust.

A spokesperson from the BEHMHNT said: "We wish to again extend our sincerest condolences to Mr and Mrs Faux and their family.

"Following Charlotte’s tragic death and throughout our serious incident investigation we worked closely with the Faux family, offering our support to help them through an extremely difficult time.

"Mr and Mrs Faux were kept up to date with the outcome of the report and the changes that were implemented after Charlotte tragically took her own life.

"We are very sorry that Charlotte died whilst under our care and did not realise that Mr and Mrs Faux felt they had not received a full apology. This was never our intention and we are extremely saddened by this."

The trust has written to the family offering their sincerest apologies for the loss of their daughter.