Bereaved families call on Sussex MPs to help make their voices heard
A letter's asking them to help their concerns reach NHS Trust bosses
Last updated 19th May 2026
A letter's urging MPs to back bereaved Sussex families in making sure their voices are heard when it comes to improving mental health care.
It's after the SPFT Bereaved Families Unite Group shared that they felt the findings of their loved ones inquests weren't being taken into account by Trust bosses.
The letter, initially addressed to Horsham's John Milne, was penned by Louise Hodgson, whose daughter-in-law Morgan took her own life in NHS care.
The 19-year-old's inquest concluded last January - but " our family have had no engagement as yet", Louise explained.
"We have tried to engage on social media and that has been rebuffed," she added.
She is hoping that other MPs will also get involved in making sure their experiences inform the future of care.
"We would like the local MP and MPs who are in the patch of Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust to assist us to communicate with those at board level, and to ensure that they have some knowledge and working idea of what happened in those inquests of all of our young people, what their own staff are saying and how that affects us as families, both obviously in the dreadful loss of our loved ones, but also in the fact that subsequently we feel that we've been gaslighted and ignored.
"We really are being made to feel the fault lies with us, that we're just angry, bereaved parents who were troublesome in the first place when our loved ones were alive and we're still troublesome.
"We actually really want positive change. We've got a lot to say."
A spokesperson from Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said: "Working with carers and families matters to us.
"This includes listening to people and making them feel heard. There are times we do this well, but there is more we need to do.
"We are making progress.
"We have been awarded two out of three stars by the Carers Trust for our work on the Triangle of Care.
"This is about making sure professionals, families and carers work together as equal partners in someone’s mental health care.
"We are also introducing Open Dialogue, an approach that brings together the person in crisis, their family and the clinical team to make decisions collaboratively.
"We are committed to building further on these positive developments."