Lack of mental health beds contributed to UK teenager’s death, inquest finds

A shortage of mental health beds and poor communication between agencies contributed to the death of a teenage girl on hospital grounds, an inquest has found.

Ellame Ford-Dunn, 16, who had a history of self-harm, died in March 2022 after absconding from an acute children’s ward where she had been put because of a dearth of appropriate mental health beds.

Her family and campaigners say Ellame’s death exposed a mental health system “crumbling at the seams”.

The inquest jury at West Sussex coroner’s court was told that Ellame absconded “multiple times” during her stay at Worthing hospital’s Bluefin ward, which was not a specialist mental health unit.

Jurors concluded the decision to place Ellame there was “inappropriate” and “more than minimally” contributed to her death. They found “inadequate provision” of mental health beds also contributed to her death.

The coroner Joanne Andrews said she would issue a prevention of future deaths report to warn that more children would die unless the inadequate provision of mental health beds was tackled.

Ellame’s parents, Ken and Nancy Ford-Dunn, urged the government to increase funding for mental health services to ensure “other families don’t have to experience the worst thing imaginable”.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 February 2026