My Joshi Could Still Be Alive With This Mental Health Revolution

Parents believe acclaimed Italian project would have helped Joshi, 24

- Mark McGivern

Crusading parents hope the death of their daughter can lead to a revolution in mental health services in Scotland.

Mark Smith believes daughter Joshi could be alive today if carers had been able to offer psychiatric treatment pioneered in northwest Italy.

He and wife Catherine are in talks that they hope will lead to the opening of a Joshi Project using the Trieste Model - a novel rehab policy first used in the Italian region.

They believe similar hubs would tackle the rising tide of mental breakdowns, suicide, and drug addictions claiming the lives of more people every year.

Joshi Smith, 24, died in the US in 2019, seven years after the Smith family moved there to seek help when mental health services in Scotland failed.

The couple spent their life savings on treatments.

But their lives were turned upside down when Joshi died of a fentanyl overdose in the States, which they believe was the result of her self-medicating. Mark, a journalist, said: “Joshi was a beautiful, inspirational daughter and there must have been a way of reaching her.

I believe there could be tens of thousands of young people like Joshi who could be helped immeasurably by methods from Trieste.

“I didn't accept that she was just beyond help, the way some professionals had made me feel.