Who is to blame for Tim Whattler’s death?

Published: July 29, 2007, 8:33 pm

Tags: psychiatry, asperger s syndrome, asd, aspergers, autism, children, coroner, depression, education, family, parenting, pdd nos, psychiatry, suicide

In February of 2006, 17-year-old Tim Whattler hung himself from a doorknob in his room in a psychatric unit Beech Court in Bridgwater, in England, just six hours after he had been admitted. Whattler had Asperger’s syndrome and had a history of difficulty with both educational and psychiatric placements; he had attempted suicide before and he had several self-inflicted cuts on his arms. The coroner, Michael Rose, ruled that staff were not guilly of neglect but needed more training in Asperger’s Syndrome, as reported by the May 10 BBC New. The July 30th Telegraph chronicles Whattler’s life. He was ten years old, his parents, Dean and Elizabeth Whattler note, when “his life started to go badly wrong.” The Whattlers behave with extraordinary control, but there is no disguising their devastation at the waste of their son’s life - one of 200 patients a year who kill themselves in supposedly safe psychiatric units. “He should never have died where he

[ Full article ]

Blog link

Rating: -1

Comments