A CARE home resident hanged herself after struggling to cope with a brain injury and diabetes, an inquest heard.

The hearing in Blackburn heard how Michelle Wilson, 47, became ‘frustrated’ with not being able to live independently for a significant period of her life.

The inquest heard Ms Wilson was found hanging in her room by a staff member at Rockmount Care Home in Blackburn Road, Rishton, on September 29 last year.

Ms Wilson’s sisters Jennifer Wood and Heather Coates told the inquest how she had suffered from diabetes and epilepsy from a young age

But the inquest heard how she found it difficult to control her diabetes and had been in care for 20 years after suffering a brain injury.

Her sisters also criticised the care and support she had from mental health assessment treatment at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, which they said ‘wasn’t adequate’.

In the weeks running up to Ms Wilson’s death, the hearing also heard she had shown signs of self-harm and had wrote notes.

Her sisters said: “She had been frustrated and distressed with the life she had.

“But it come as a shock to us what happened,” they said.

“The care home clearly had concerns about Michelle and tried to communicate their frustration without getting the support they needed from the trust.

“Multiple referrals had been made to the mental health team but the response was not what was required and wasn’t adequate.

“Opportunities had been missed.”

Christopher Treen, who worked at Rockmount and found her hanged, said he had never expected Ms Wilson to kill herself.

He said: “Although she made comments saying she might as well not be here spending the rest of her life taking insulin, she always used to laugh at it.

“There was an incident leading up to her death which caused us to confiscate anything she could hang herself with out of her room.

“Rockmount also put in referrals for her to be seen by a START team.

"But I never expected to find her and for her to kill herself.”

Salman Shafiq, a consultant psychiatrist from the Specialist Triage Assessment and Referral Team (START) at Lancashire Care, said: “We received a call from the manager of the care home about what the situation was on September 25.“We had planned an assessment and would have visited for an appointment in October.”

Concluding, East Lancashire assistant coroner Richard Taylor, said: “There is enough doubt in my mind for this not to be suicide, so I record a verdict of death by hanging.”