{"id":818865,"date":"2026-10-30T17:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818865\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T17:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:06:16","slug":"essex-mental-health-failings-led-to-my-familys-deaths-says-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/818865\/","title":{"rendered":"Essex mental health failings led to my family&#8217;s deaths, says mum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Colin Flatt was described during the recent inquest as a fit and active man, who played football professionally, which included stints at Cambridge United, Leyton Orient and Southend United.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In May 2021, he was suffering from memory loss and was admitted to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford with a low heart rate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was assessed by the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) and was diagnosed with Alzheimer&#8217;s disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Flatt was transferred to Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford, east London &#8211; after incidents of &#8220;violence and aggression&#8221; &#8211; and was detained under the Mental Health Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Wednesday, the 10-person jury at Essex Coroner&#8217;s Court concluded there was a missed opportunity when a mental health tribunal approved his discharge from Goodmayes in June 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The following month, after being admitted to Basildon Hospital, Flatt stabbed himself with scissors in the abdomen and climbed over a landing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He fell about 5m (16ft) on to a glass table and died in the September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colin Flatt was described during the recent inquest as a fit and active man, who played football professionally,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-818865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}