Apologies for 2013 mental health failings over mum

A son has accepted a settlement and an apology from the north Wales health board nearly 10 years after his mother was a patient in a mental health unit.

Jean Graves spent nine weeks at the Hergest unit in Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor in 2013 after struggling with anxiety and depression.

Her son David said she was left "severely malnourished" and fell.

He previously said his mother - who was 78 when she was treated at the unit - collapsed six times and, over the course of six weeks, lost 25% of her body mass.

The health board also apologised for the "distress" the family experienced while seeking answers "over many years" and said it hopes to "learn and improve" from Mr Graves's experience.

In a letter to him, executives said: "It is very clear to us that we have failed your mother and that she should have had a better care whilst in our services."

It said her records were incomplete or were "amended without proper evidence" and she was placed on a ward with a mix of patients with both psychiatric illness and older organic mental illness, which was not "best practice".

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Source: BBC News, 26 March 2023