Lincolnshire social worker suspended over safety checks

A SOCIAL worker has been suspended after failing to carry out any safety checks on a suicidal patient who later killed himself.

Stephen Graham Thompson was working for North Lincolnshire Council as a mental health specialist in January 2008, when he was twice called by suicide charity Rethink over a patient known only as PK threatening to end his life.

As a member of the authority’s Crisis Resolution team, Mr Thompson should have assessed how much danger PK was in and taken a series of comprehensive steps to keep him safe.

But the specialist merely informed Rethink that a colleague would contact PK, who was know to the crisis team, the following morning and made a note of the call.

An investigation into the incident was carried out by social care regulator the General Social Care Council, which found previous but unconnected problems.

The report reads: “You failed properly to make an assessment of, or recognise the risk of suicide that PK presented.

“You did not contact PK directly or contact R, the partner of PK to ascertain his state of mind or whether he was safe.

“Having accessed PK’s Risk Management Plan you did not access further records which gave a clear indication of risk.”

The report found the suicide case to be ‘an isolated incident’ and said Mr Thompson’s ‘expressions of regret were genuine’.

He was handed a year-long suspension, although a council spokeswoman said he no longer worked for the authority and had not done so for a year.

In written statements handed to the committee, Mr Thompson said: “I failed to identify the warning signs on the night of January 9, 2008 and cannot explain why this was the case.”