The tragic death of 16-year-old Elise Sebastian has raised serious concerns regarding the care provided by the NHS trust at the St Aubyn Centre unit in Colchester. In April 2021, Elise, a woman living in Southminster close to Maldon, was discovered unconscious in her room. She unfortunately died just two days later. Her family is understandably outraged over how she died. They focus instead on systemic failures in her care, which led to this truly heartbreaking outcome.
Here’s the thing — Elise had already been through a lot. The debilitating physical ailments, including a curvature of the spine, which fed into her mental health crisis. Diagnosed with anxiety at 12, she was a target for constant bullying. By 15, she had been admitted to mental health units over 20 times. Though Elise endured a lot, her devotion to animals never wavered. Shortly before her death, she had enrolled in a class at community college to study animal care.
At the St Aubyn Centre, Elise was meant to be getting one-to-one care following multiple incidents of self-harm. Yet at the same time, she was permitted to enter her bedroom from a shared common space without any staff oversight. This lack of oversight has led to serious questions about her care. “I felt there was no-one there taking responsibility,” said Michael Lewis, a family member.
Since Elise’s death, Elise’s family have spoken about their anger at the responses they have had from the NHS trust when pursuing their questions. “Each question was met with ‘I don’t know,’” Lewis stated, indicating a lack of accountability from those responsible for Elise’s care.
Elise was more than her challenges, though she was a dynamic young woman with dreams. Her mother, Glen Sebastian, who is a painter herself, remembers her daughter’s skill with paint. She would just blow me away with her paintings. No doubt that she had a talent! Ms. Hayes, an extended family member, called Elise “a young woman who’s got her own aspirations, desires, this big wide world to explore.” It was those failures, she stressed, that rendered Elise’s care a story of lost potential.
At the time, Elise had short brown hair that she dyed bright cherry red. She was a huge fan of the popular band One Direction and the Harry Potter series. Her passion for animals and art reflected her lively spirit. Sadly, her future aspirations were tragically ended when she was killed at a much too young age.
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