Sister of MMA Fighter Blames Mental Health Professionals For His Suicide

Sister of deceased MMA fighter Rocky Stenning believes mental health professionals failed to help her brother with mental illness.

Rocky Stenning was an English fighter who fought in the welterweight division. He had two fights in his professional career and last fought in 2017.

He was just 26 years old when he was found guilty of wounding with intent and possession of a bladed article. Stenning was sentenced to nine years in prison on July 10, 2018, and unfortunately committed suicide nine days later.

Stenning struggled heavily with mental illness after his own father’s suicide. According to his sister, Kristal Stenning, Rocky used MMA as a source to help with his anxiety and depression.

But despite his known issues with mental health, he was still not supplied the care he needed. Kristal blames the lack of experience and knowledge shown by mental health professionals for her brother’s suicide.

And so in 2019, she opened an inquest to dig deeper into her brother’s death. A jury ruled that although the prison could have worked more adequately to prevent Stenning’s self-harm, they did use proper resuscitation techniques after finding him hanging in his cell.

However, Rocky’s sister believes more should have been done and faults the professionals for his death.

“From the beginning of Rocky’s last stay in hospital to his time in prison before he died, every single person failed him,” she said.

She also believes nothing has been learned from her brother’s inquest.

“They still do not take mental health issues seriously. They are still failing more people.”(via Irvine Times)

Kristal has gathered an abundance of evidence to report to the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry. The establishment began investigating the deaths of mental health patients last year.

Those who knew Stenning, from his family to coaches and teammates, had nothing but positive things to say about him. They described him as a joy to be around whose humor could brighten up any space.

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