By Charlotte Webster-
A family is reeling in distress after a senior social worker committed suicide because of work changes triggered a severe depression, a coroner’s inquest has heard .Experienced 66 year old social worker, Annie Peel, killed herself because of severe depression caused by changes at work out of her control. A social worker in Cumbria for 28 years, took her own life after falling into a severe depression triggered by changes at work and issues which left her deeply unhappy with how she was managed. A family member of Peel’s in mourning told The Eye Of Media.Com: ”its so painful I don’t know how we will cope with this bad news. It is still the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning, but Cumbria services don’t want to take responsibility for this.
The 51 year old family member who does not want to be named told The Eye Of Media.Com that Cumbria Services ”have blood on their hands”, adding that not enough was done to help her relative address her pressures. Peel’s wider family do not want much about her death circulated in the press, saying it reinforces the pain. However, the sad story was brought to our attention through a trusted professional contact who wants the incompetence of Cumbria children’s services highlighted as much as possible. Social workers in the Uk are known to be overloaded with work, and do not always have adequate resources to carry out their duties. Disciplinary measures meted out for incompetent or inadequate service have been numerous over the past year, but many social workers have blamed a very demanding working schedule for this.
The case of Peel was complex, at it included a pre-existing mental health condition, as well as complaints against her attitude that worsened her pain. Against the background of her death, family members are not even willing to release her picture for recognition, especially as many of her old friends from decades may recognize her. It is not the kind of farewell they wanted for her. ”Depression is an awful way for anybody to die, very awful”, her tearful relative says. ”There is no party to be had when a loved one dies like this, is there”?
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At the inquest, coroner Nicholas Shaw concluded that the 66-year-old social worker from Cumbria developed a “severe agitated depression” as a consequence of “stress brought on by changed working arrangements”. This led to her displaying “strong suicidal ideation”, the inquest record added, and despite interventions by mental health services and the “devoted and intense support of her family”, Peel took her own life in March 2017.
Members of Peel’s family had pleaded for an emergency assessment just two days before her death, but this was not immediately forthcoming.An informal action plan was drawn up for Peel to help address “competency issues” by Cumbria council’s children’s services, where she worked as a social worker, but she saw this as an attack on her credibility. A friend of the diseased social worker testified at the hearing
”Annie told me the reason she was doing this was because she couldn’t tolerate the pressure she felt she was being put under and that she didn’t want to continue with [her] team manager role,” McDonald told the coroner. Her depression got worse in December 2016, when she told him she had get out of her job as she felt overwhelmed by the scrutiny she was under. “Annie was quite emotional at this point and had tears in her eyes,” said Mr McDonald.
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A few months later, he met her again at her daughter’s house in Carlisle. “I was struck by how frail and emotionally agitated Annie was,” he said.
MENTAL HEALTH
The coroner heard how Peel had suffered from mental health issues before, a stress-related illness in 2004 and anxiety and depression in 2008.In a statement to the coroner, Peel’s service manager said there had been an audit highlighting concerns about some of her cases, which had upset her despite her welcoming the feedback. The coroner also heard that Ms Peel was affected by increased work pressure, two complaints against her, and a new line manager she did not like.
Cumbria’s children’s services was considered ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted before moving to a ‘requires improvement’ rating this year.The council’s deputy chief executive and corporate director for the people directorate, John Macilwraith, said: “We consider the health and wellbeing of all of our staff, including social workers, to be of the utmost importance. Public sector workers continue to be under a high level of pressure, not least due to the difficult financial climate in which they operate.”
Macilwraith added: “In Cumbria, we continue to prioritize and invest in the well being of our workforce, and we have a number of policies and procedures in place to support our staff. A confident and well-supported workforce is key to help us to meet our duty to deliver high quality services for those in need.“There was a very difficult and complicated set of circumstances with Annie Peel, and our thoughts continue to be with her family and friends,” he said.
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