By Sarah Nicholls

Last updated at 15:28, Wednesday, 10 October 2012

A part-time DJ who died after being found at home with a belt around his neck had been referred to a mental health crisis team days earlier, and inquest heard.

James Rooney

James Francis Rooney, 57, of Broadacres, High Harrington, Workington, died on October 25, 2010, after he was admitted to Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital.

At the hearing in Workington, North and West Cumbria coroner David Roberts was told that a week earlier Mr Rooney’s GP contacted the crisis team at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust over concerns he might be suicidal.

The former Sellafield worker, who worked regularly as a DJ at Yankees in Workington, had visited the town’s Beechwood Medical Practice in the months before he died, concerned about his physical health.

Extensive tests showed no medical problem, Dr Angela Peel-White said, but Mr Rooney was struggling to sleep and eat and had lost weight. She said his family were concerned he was going to have a breakdown.

She referred him to the First Step mental health team in August 2010 and he was prescribed anti-depressants. He denied being suicidal when asked but remained convinced he was physically ill and was not taking his medication.

Dr Peel-White said: “He was saying, ‘I have got to be rid of this thing inside me’.”

The doctor, who previously worked in psychiatry, struck a deal with Mr Rooney that if a full body CT scan showed no physical problem, he would be referred to a psychiatry team. Despite the test on October 12 being clear, he remained convinced his problems were physical, she said. She added: “He was saying words to the effect of ‘I haven’t had a nervous breakdown, have I?’”

On October 18 he told the doctor, unprompted, that he did not want to kill himself. The statement made her think he may, in fact, be having suicidal thoughts.

Dr Peel-White said: “I think he believed his life was so intolerable that he was contemplating suicide so he wouldn’t be eaten alive by whatever he thought was inside him.”

She phoned the crisis team straight away to refer him. Despite the doctor’s concerns, a crisis team practitioner who assessed him the same day determined he posed a low risk of self-harm and could be treated at home. That practitioner, Christine Rice, told the inquest she did not recall whether she had read Dr Peel-White’s notes about the suicide risk but it may not have changed her conclusion, she said.

“I’d have based my assessment on what I could see,” she added.

A week later, Mr Rooney died. A pathologist found that the ligature around his neck combined with toxic levels of a prescribed antidepressant had led to asphyxia, restricting the flow of oxygen to his brain.

He also had underlying heart disease, which was a contributory factor, the post-mortem report said.

Professor David Dagnan, the NHS trust’s clinical director for Copeland and Allerdale, told the inquest an investigation had been carried out after Mr Rooney’s death, highlighting areas where the care he received from the trust could have been improved.

The inquest continues.

First published at 14:45, Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk