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Suicide girl's father calls for hospital smoking ban rethink
2:36pm Tuesday 25th September 2007
A father whose mentally ill daughter jumped to her death inside a hospital is calling for a rethink of the smoking ban.
Genevieve Butler leapt from the fourth floor landing of a London hospital as she was being escorted by a nurse to have a cigarette outside.
Her suicide occurred shortly after she was told she was being discharged from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on April 28 last year.
The 28-year-old, who suffered from bi-polar disorder, had been admitted the previous day after taking a paracetamol overdose.
Her father Lord Dunboyne, 56, of Rotherfield, East Sussex, said today: "It was a Bank Holiday weekend and they wanted her out on the Friday night."
Miss Butler was not formally assessed by an "appropriate psychiatrist" despite being deemed by a Crisis Resolution Team as fit for discharge to "home care", an inquest at Westminster Coroners' Court heard last week.
The nurse who accompanied her on the cigarette break was never told two other patients had also leapt to their deaths from the same spot, the inquest heard.
Lord Dunboyne said: "There are two areas of current government policy which need to be examined very carefully.
"One is the use of crisis-resolution teams as gatekeepers to mental health units and the second is the no smoking policy within hospitals and mental health institutions.
"I think these two areas need to be looked at very carefully."
He described his daughter as "a generous bright young lady".
Your Say YourArgus
LB, Hove says...
3:41pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Her mental illness was responible for making her feel like she wanted to kill herslef, the smoking ban just gave her an opportunity.
A Reader, Hove says...
3:45pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Rob, Brighton says...
3:49pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Joe Camel, says...
4:00pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Hospital patients need the antidepressant effects of smoking.
Frayed Not, Fraser Valley says...
4:12pm Tue 25 Sep 07
cat, worthing says...
4:18pm Tue 25 Sep 07
if it wasnt the smoking ban belive me if she really wanted to do it, she would have found a way whatever - i know that from personal experience
So What !!!!!!!, OZ says...
5:03pm Tue 25 Sep 07
DW, Hove says...
5:16pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Joe Camel, says...
5:20pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Your attitude is typical of Tobacco Nazis in that you think smokers need your "help" in quitting. For every quitter Big Pharma has plenty of drugs to "help"--antidepressa
nts ,
tranquilizers, stimulants, sleeping pills, weight loss drugs,and anyrhing else that puts more money in their pockets. The above costs ten times as much as smoking,
So What!!!!
Show me somebody killed by smoking. You should find some other phony cause to puke propanda about.
Frayed Knot, The Asylum says...
5:47pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Oh, and b.t.w thousands of people have been killed by smoking or do you not read any medical news?
You had better change to a newspaper instead of reading The Sun then.
Whizzzzzzzzzz, Brighton says...
5:56pm Tue 25 Sep 07
John, Italy says...
6:07pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Joe Camel, says...
6:26pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Ninety year old smokers are commonplace. That's how deadly it is, numbskull.
Rob, Brighton says...
7:10pm Tue 25 Sep 07
mark, London says...
7:12pm Tue 25 Sep 07
quote"Oh, and b.t.w thousands of people have been killed by smoking or do you not read any medical news?"/quote
You actually believe that don't you.
karen, Leicetsreshire says...
7:22pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Frayed Knot, Fraser Valley says...
8:21pm Tue 25 Sep 07
Please go back and re-read my original message. (And note that there is another person using a similar name.) At no point did I make any comment on the connection between tobacco and disease, yet as expected, there was a rant by those who do not support the smoking ban. Out of context of course, and with the usual rude ignorance. No respect of course that those who support such a ban are as entitled to their opinion as those who do not
I'm sorry that most of the writers failed to express any sympathy for the family's sad loss. It was not the tobacco ban that caused the suicide, but provided the opportunity, and may have been planned that way, we cannot know. Any one truly bent on self harm, will usually find the means
My condolences to the family at this sad time.
Joe Camel, says...
9:01pm Tue 25 Sep 07
If somebody else is saying "tobacco kills" and using your name, maybe you're not the idiot. He is.
But could you explain your rationale for cheering smoke banners on?
Some say it makes their clothes stink of something besides sweat. Some say it's because of the risk of getting ashes in their eyes. Some say they don't want to look at butts on the ground.
I say it's because you like the ego trip of being an **** without getting your balls busted.
Belinda, Edinburgh says...
12:06am Wed 26 Sep 07
But why dismiss what her father is saying? Many people's stay in a mental institution is shortlived. However, when anybody dies suddenly it is the immediate circumstances that weigh in people's minds ... whatever has happened in the past. I have had sucicide in my family. In the current situation, if I visit a relative who is climbing the walls in a mental institution, and know that a cigarette would calm them down had it been allowable, of course the ban woudld be instrumental in the relative's decision to take their life at that particular point in time.
Without claiming that Genevieve would never have taken her life in other circumstances, if there had been no ban, it might have happened later in life or even not at all. I feel it is safe to say that it contributed to her state of mind at the time she died.
James, England says...
7:49am Wed 26 Sep 07
Fred_N, Worthing says...
2:08pm Wed 26 Sep 07
Fred_N, Worthing says...
2:09pm Wed 26 Sep 07
G-W, London says...
10:47pm Wed 26 Sep 07
zanuzi, feels like nazi germany. says...
10:05am Fri 5 Oct 07
kingtroy, Medway towns UK says...
9:37pm Mon 3 Dec 07
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jo, haywards heath says...
3:38pm Tue 25 Sep 07