Teacher walked into river after failing to get help from mental health service

The family of a former teacher who died in a river say she was let down by mental health services. after being unable to access medication or the support she needed. Carolyn Groom went missing from her home in Northfleet, Kent, at around midnight on April 7, 2025.

Dozens of people helped her family search for her over the following weeks before the 76-year-old’s body was found at Town Pier in Gravesend town centre on April 24. An inquest into her death has now been held in Maidstone

The court heard how, in the lead-up to her disappearance, the family had been trying to get her back on antipsychotic medication. She had lived with the illness for more than 50 years and had previously taken amisulpride.

But from July 2022, the former teacher and secretary was weaned off the drug because she had high levels of prolactin – the hormone that produces breast milk in women. After a couple of months coming off the medicine, her mental health began to get worse.

In the year before she died, it declined dramatically. Mrs Groom’s family took her to a GP on February 28 after seeing signs of her psychosis returning. The doctor referred her to Kent and Medway Mental Health Trust (KMMHT)

The assessment said she was suffering from “low mood” and also noted that her family had concerns about what they described as psychotic behaviour. It was not marked as urgent because the doctor found she was not displaying signs of wanting to take her own life, or to harm herself or others.

On March 4, Gill Mangeet, a KMMHT clinical pathway lead who had worked with the family before, booked an assessment for within 28 days. Ten days later, Mrs Groom’s GP requested that the appointment be brought forward because she was rapidly deteriorating.

The family said that by this time she was convinced that the government and people in power wanted to kill her and that special messages were being sent to her in TV programmes and over the radio. These concerns were sent to KMMHT.

On March 27, she was seen by an assistant psychologist who found that Mrs Groom again did not show signs that she wanted to commit suicide, or that she wanted to harm herself or others. But her husband, Frank Groom, said she was showing signs of delusion and handed the doctor a bundle of papers with his wife’s background of mental health issues.

He also said that she was masking her psychosis when being assessed – something Mrs Groom had done before as she knew it would stop her having to go to hospital. Following the assessment, another clinical pathway lead at KMMHT, Harry Chatory, reviewed her case and arranged another assessment for April 22.

Coroner Sarah Clarke asked why there seemed to be a lack of urgency for a follow-up appointment for Mrs Groom. Mr Chatory said this was because there was “no evidence of psychosis as she did not voice any suicidal thoughts or risk to herself or others” in the report.

However, he did say things should have been done differently and that Mrs Groom should have been "seen as soon as possible” due to her history of psychosis.