“SHE could have been saved if she had been given the right help.”

These are the words of Melody Marsden, who is calling on Somerset Partnership to improve mental health care after her sister, Julie Yard, took her own life on December 21 despite calls for help.

Melody, who lives in Highbridge, claims she and her sister rang staff at Glanville House in Bridgwater on a number of occasions to get 48-year-old Julie mental health support in the weeks before her death but said she was never seen by health professionals.

“Julie had been battling mental health problems since the age of 18 and suffered from anxiety and bipolar disorder,” Melody said.

“On November 13, the day after her birthday, she rang me and told me we needed to catch up. I knew something was wrong as that was what Julie said when she needed help.

“I was in touch with her doctors and we went down together and I told them that she needed some help.

“When we went to see her GP and told him what Julie was suffering with, he called mental health professionals and told them that she needed to be seen, but they never came to see her.

“We knew Julie could get help at Glanville House so I told her to call them.

“Julie has always struggled to reach out for help but she called them three times in the two weeks before her death and I called them a number of times, too, but she still didn’t get seen.

“They wouldn’t listen to me, even though I was family, it was frustrating.

“Julie had locked herself in her house, she was living in her lounge and not going out, nine days before her death.

“She had lost so much weight.

“To see your own flesh and blood do something like that is harrowing.”

Melody claims in the six weeks before her death, Julie was not seen by mental health professionals and claims staff at Glanville House were unhelpful and rude to her and her sister when they called them for help.

She said she wants to see changes to improve mental health care so people can be helped from a young age.

“I think families need to be listened to more as they are the ones who know their relatives and what they are suffering with inside out,” she said.

“This mental health system needs to be looked at as Julie could have been saved if she had been given the right help.

“There is nothing more I can do for Julie but I can bring this to light in her memory and maybe help stop this from happening to someone else who is suffering.”

Melody said she hopes Julie’s story will help make changes to the mental health system and paid tribute to her sister who she described as ‘a beautiful girl’.

“Julie was the most loveable, nicest, massive-hearted girl in the world and she has touched a lot of people,” Melody said.

“She always wanted to help others and battled mental health problems all her life.

“Julie, the demons have gone now love, you can be at peace.”

Julie’s brother, Kane Yard, also paid tribute to his sister, who he described as ‘the life of the party’.

“Julie used to manage pubs and nightclubs and spent years of her life going up and down the country to help run pubs and once they were back on their feet she would move on to the next one,” he said.

“She was the life of the party and always did her best to help others even before she helped herself.”

Hayley Peters, chief nurse at Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust will be working with Julie’s family to review their practices.

“Our thoughts are with Julie Yard’s family at what must be an incredibly difficult time for them,” she said.

“In very sad circumstances like these, it is important that we examine our practice and we will be working with Julie’s family to do this.

“We have offered to meet and support them and to hear of their concerns about her care.”