The University of Exeter health team has never responded to a mother’s pleas for help for her son with a computer failure, an investigation has found.
Harry Armstrong-Evans was in his senior year when he died at home in Launceston, Cornwall in June 2021.
His mother, Alice, had attempted to raise concerns with Exeter University before he took his own life.
However, the investigation revealed that a log of their phone call was closed due to computer problems.
Mark Sawyer, the university’s head of health and social services, told the inquiry in Truro, Cornwall, that a voicemail message from Ms Armstrong-Evans was put into a case management system.
The mother explained the third-year physics and astrophysics student was worried about passing his degree after disappointing module results.
He also worried about his family’s finances as he feared they would lose their home after his father lost a court case and faced court cases.
However, due to issues with the case management system, the logs were closed when a member of the welfare team replied to the administration team asking for more information.
Ms Armstrong-Evans made a second call to the service later that month and was put through to a social worker to answer after hours.
The investigation found that Ms. Armstrong-Evans had only left her daily contact details and when the practitioner replied to the administrative staff asking for an alternate phone number, the record was closed.
“Because of these technical challenges of what button you press in the system, now that we’ve been made aware of it, we’ve put in place a completely different system for tracking student wellbeing inquiries,” said Mr. Sawyer.
The student later emailed his personal tutor and health service expressing concerns about his isolation during lockdown, his deteriorating mental health and concerns about his exams.
However, Mr Sawyer said there was nothing in the email to indicate that Mr Armstrong Evans was in a crisis and required an immediate response.
Mr. Armstrong Evans’ father, Rupert, asked Mr. Sawyer if he thought the university owed his son a duty of care.
Mr. Sawyer replied, “It is very difficult for the University to manage the expectations placed on them and their ability to truly provide care in a ‘duty of care’ sense.”
He said the university accepts “a limited and voluntary responsibility to expel students when risk becomes apparent.”
Mr Sawyer added: “When red flags come in, we as an educational institution are not really there to directly assess and provide effective monitoring and risk management.
“We try very hard with the information we have to give students good advice about signage.
“What struck us about this whole tragic case was that neither of us at any point recognized or noticed any red flags to Harry’s safety.”
The investigation continues.
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