Grieving Sussex mum helps launch new mental health campaign after son's death

Horsham schoolboy Mason Clark was found dead near his home in West Grinstead in September 2021 and his mum Jessica has been working ever since to raise awareness of mental health issues in a bid to prevent others taking their own lives.

An inquest into Mason’s death heard that he had struggled with his mental health for years but there was poor information sharing between his school, GP, counsellors, the Youth Emotional Support service run by West Sussex County Council, police, and the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub – MASH.

Jessica said: “We lost my beautiful son, Mason to suicide when he was just 14 years old. Mason was the seventh teenager in West Sussex to be lost to what's called a 'self inflicted death', in just 12 months.

"Despite multiple inquests and a Prevention of Future Deaths report, no meaningful change has occurred and we are losing loved ones unnecessarily.”

She added: “Children's mental health is suffering after years of under investment and a lack of education on the topics that most greatly impact their wellbeing. So much more needs to be done in this area but as an absolute minimum we must learn from their tragic early deaths.”

Jessica attended the launch of a ‘No More Deaths’ campaign by the charity INQUEST at the House of Commons yesterday (Tuesday). She said the campaign would be “a fundamental building block to ensure we prevent deaths like Mason’s, and sadly many, many others.

"Change must occur so that families do not have to suffer repeatedly because state related organisations continue to fail to learn from past mistakes.”

INQUEST is calling on the Government to create a National Oversight Mechanism: a new independent public body responsible for monitoring recommendations arising from inquests, inquiries, official reviews and investigations into state-related deaths.

Jessica met with Horsham MP Jeremy Quin at the launch who later announced that a new advice and support hub – i-Rock – is to be opened in Horsham next month.

"The hub will be a safe space for young people to receive advice and signposting to local support services. It could also be a place where people worried about their friends can also get advice and direction, so they don't have to hold that weight of responsibility on their own,” said Jessica.

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Jeremy said: “Young people told me they wanted their own safe space which could help them and their friends with their emotional wellbeing. I took up this call and it is great to see i-Rock Horsham District set up to do just that.”

Meanwhile, Jessica is calling for more public support and is urging people to sign INQUEST’s petition to the Government to establish a National Oversight Mechanism: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-more-deaths-help-put-an-end-to-preventable-deaths-in-state-custody-or-care

Jessica added: “There's is so much more to do, please sign the petition and keep talking. Child death is a taboo subject and suicide even more so but if we can't talk about it, we can't prevent it.”