St Pancras Coroner’s Court

A YOUNG teaching assistant took her own life after waiting two years for ­therapy on the NHS, a coroner’s inquest heard.

Freija Enhus-Sanders, 24, died at her home in Bickerton Road, Archway, in March 2023 after struggling with suicidal thoughts, St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.

Coroner Mary Hassell ruled Ms Enhus-Sanders died from a prescription drug overdose after she waited two years to access what would have been a year-long intensive therapy course at the Margarete Centre in Euston – but she died before she was able to attend.

Former Whitehall Park Primary School TA Ms Enhus-Sanders attempted suicide three times in January 2022 and was referred to the Camden and Islington Personality Disorder Service in April before being seen for an assessment the following January. At that point she was advised it could take up to another year to start therapy.

Ms Hassell told the court: “It just seems inherently risky you have a client who waits 8-10 months to be seen by someone and then can’t progress to therapy. Isn’t that inherently dangerous?”

Clinical psychologist Sophie Colman, based at the Margarete Centre, said the service offered patients a helpline.

“She was living with her mother and had stopped drinking so we felt that would protect her, that the risk was less,” Dr Colman told the court, although she admitted “there is always a risk”.

She said the length of time patients wait is down to a clinical assessment, and she had “reflected many times” on the care Ms Enhus-Sanders was given. “I really don’t think I would have done anything differently,” she added.

Ms Hassell also questioned why it took doctors eight weeks to check in on Ms Enhus-Sanders after she was prescribed with Prozac, despite known side effects including extreme suicidal thoughts.

Ms Enhus-Sanders was given the highest level dosage of the medication at the end of January 2023 to treat bulimia.

Ms Hassell asked her doctor, Dr William Hancocks, whether it was “counter intuitive to prescribe it to a patient who has attempted to kill themselves in the past year?” to which he replied: “It’s a good question.”

Dr Hancocks added he had scheduled a two- month follow-up in order to give the drugs time to work. “Was it not incumbent upon you to bring her back sooner?” Ms Hassell asked him.

The court also heard that while anti-depressants are known to have an increased risk of suicide in patients, there is no “protocol” around when doctors should schedule a follow-up appointment.

In a statement read out to the court, Ms Enhus-Sanders’ mother Linn Enhus said she had noticed a “small change” in her daughter in the run up to the night of her death, but had sent her to bed that night with the usual exchange of “love you” that the pair shared.

Earlier they had danced together in the kitchen, excited about booking a trip to Sweden to see family. She added: “I feel deeply that since taking Prozac, her small steps to getting better were thwarted.”

In a verdict of suicide, Ms Hassell said “I am satisfied [the drugs] were prescribed with the best of intentions” for a “very real and distressing illness”.

She said she didn’t know why Ms Enhus-Sanders had taken her life but acknowledged she had “a lot to contend with” including anxiety, depression and a personality disorder.