Bronwen’s Wish: Why Cooperative Care and Treatment Planning Matters

Jayne and Haydn Morgan’s eldest daughter, Bronwen, was in their words, “an enthusiastic, bubbly, happy child” who was active, sporty and full of life.

At first, Bronwen’s mental health struggles were kept hidden. But in 2019, Bronwen’s mental health started to deteriorate drastically, and she suffered a devastating injustice in her care; her needs and wishes were ignored by those meant to support her. In August 2020, Bronwen tragically passed away by suicide.

Sharing their story with Adferiad, Jayne and Haydn, describe a system in need of reform and are now campaigning for change in mental health care and for shared decision-making to become a legal requirement.

Bronwen’s experience, as well as that of her parents, reflect wider challenges within mental health services and the support offered to carers, issues that Adferiad is addressing through its ‘Towards A Fairer Future’ campaign.

“It was a devastating time for us. I would like to say we never saw it coming, but we could see it coming. We knew she was becoming increasingly unwell,” Haydn says.

As her struggles became more visible, Bronwen sought support from friends and family and was referred into mental health services. A care and treatment plan was developed, which included support from a Community Psychiatric Nurse and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). However, both Bronwen and her parents felt that the support was limited and, at times, ineffective.

“It was mostly telephone support,” Jayne explains. “There was very little face-to-face contact.”

Bronwen was diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder, which her parents felt was a harmful label for a young person already struggling.

A turning point came when Bronwen disclosed to her GP that she had previously been sexually assaulted, an experience her parents believe was the trigger for her mental health decline.

“We felt it was trauma-based, post-traumatic stress disorder, not a personality disorder,” they explain.

During periods of crisis, Bronwen was frequently taken to hospital by Police under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. Her parents describe a cycle of short-term intervention followed by discharge, often without adequate follow-up or communication.

“She’d be discharged an hour later, still in danger,” Haydn recalls.

They also describe challenging experiences in A&E, where they felt mental health crises were not always treated with the same urgency or compassion as physical illness.

“There was a lack of care and empathy,” Jayne says.

Bronwen’s parents received no formal support as carers. They were not offered a carers’ assessment and were largely left to manage alone. In the months leading up to her death, they repeatedly raised concerns about her worsening condition but felt these warnings were not acted upon.

“We lost all hope,” Haydn says.

Following her death, her family established Bronwen’s W;sh, a charity aimed at improving mental health support and preventing similar tragedies. Their work focuses on early intervention in schools, including wellbeing pods, safe spaces where children can talk openly and campaigning for change, particularly to make shared decision-making in care and treatment plans a legal requirement.

“We believe in open dialogue,” Haydn says. “Everyone should be around the table – sharing information and making decisions together.”

At Adferiad, we are working closely with NHS Wales to create a Care and Treatment Planning process that involves mental health carers like Jayne and Haydn from the very beginning, something we believe is essential to the patient’s care. We are calling for this to be made a priority for the next Welsh Government and implemented by Health Boards going forward as part of our ‘Towards a Fairer Future’ campaign, to read more about our Priorities for the Next Welsh Government, click here: bit.ly/4pd0TV8