QUESTIONS were raised of the mental health support system during the inquest into a young Wrexham man who took his own life.

On Monday (May 10), an inquest was held into the death of 28-year-old Nathan Leigh Surgenor - who was found dead at his home in Gwersyllt in May, 2020.

The hearing, held at County Hall in Ruthin, was told that Mr Surgenor had taken his own life - with a pathologist's cause of death recorded as hanging.

The inquest heard that Mr Surgenor had previously worked as data processing operative for DTCC, and then was employed in the same role at Reuters.

However, Mr Surgenor had to give up his job due to a worsening eye-related condition, Keratoconus, which left him going blind in both eyes.

Mr Surgenor was said to be a keen musician and played guitar in a band. He was also a proficient band technician and had studied music technology at both college and university.

But due to his worsening Keratoconus condition, he had to quit his role in the band.

Losing his job and his place in the band both affected Mr Surgenor greatly, the inquest was told.

As well as the eye condition, Mr Surgenor was also diagnosed with epilepsy.

The inquest was told that his worsening physical state is what triggered Mr Surgenor's mental health problems - with him said to have been left "troubled and frustrated" by his poor eyesight.

He was prescribed anti-depressants in 2018 and twice overdosed on prescribed medication - once in October 2018 and then in January 2020.

After the first overdose, Mr Surgenor was referred to Wrexham's community mental health team - with him often having "fleeting" thoughts of suicide.

Between this period, Mr Surgenor had started smoking cannabis and had roughly "three to four" joints a day.

It was running out of cannabis that led to his second overdose, with the inquest told that he had had a "staggered" overdose over a number of days - likely caused by him wanting to find alternatives to cannabis.

While in Wrexham Maelor Hospital after his second overdose, Mr Surgenor agreed for another referral to be made the community mental health team.

However, he did not make contact with the service within 10 day limit to do so and reportedly had "binned" his referral letter.

After splitting up with his partner of five years, Mr Surgenor moved back in with his parents, Selwyn and Julie, at their home on Cilcen in Gwersyllt.

It was there that on the evening May 3, 2020 Mr Surgenor was found deceased in the attic area of the house.

Despite all care and efforts, he was pronounced dead shortly before 10pm.

Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, heard evidence from key witnesses working at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital's mental health unit, Mr Surgenor's GP and from the community mental health team.

Mrs Dudley-Jones questioned whether a follow up referral could have been made after Mr Surgenor failed to respond to his 'opt in' referral in January 2020.

She said that people in Mr Surgenor's position with so much on their mind may need more prompting and time to make contact with the community mental health team,

Psychiatric nurse, Emma Shaw, told the hearing that follow up referrals are decided based on the risk associated with each patient. As Mr Surgenor was deemed low risk of self-harm, no such follow up was necessary.

Joanne Thomas, deputy manager of north east Wales' community mental health team, said that since December 2020, a system had been put in place whereby contact is made directly via telephone with a patient. During these calls, people are offered an appointment at the next available opportunity.

Mrs Thomas said this system has increased the number of patients that opt in to the referral system, something which Mrs Dudley-Jones said "reassured" her concerns.

Dr Masood Malik, consultant psychiatrist/clinical director at Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board, told the hearing that a report compiled into Mr Surgenor's death found no issues regarding the standard of his care.

Dr Malik, however, did say that the health board is developing other supportive measures, such as community drop-ins where representatives of a range of services are all in the same place.

He also said the health board is developing a scheme whereby a senior psychiatric practitioner visits GPs to find out which of their cases are of the most concern.