TWO women whose relatives took their own lives after repeatedly asking for help from medics are to launch a petition to improve mental health treatment.

Karen McKeown's partner Luke Henderson was found dead in their Bellshill home in December 2017, after the couple had begged for urgent treatment for his mental health difficulties eight times in the previous week.

They spoke to 11 different medical professionals at NHS 24, GP surgeries, A&E units and support services around North Lanarkshire before father-of-two Luke killed himself, and were either turned away or referred elsewhere.

Karen is now calling for a complete review of mental health service provision across the NHS in Scotland and believes a Fatal Accident inquiry (FAI) should be held into her partner's death.

She has been supported by Dundee campaigner Gillian Murray, whose uncle David Ramsay also took his own life after being twice turned away from hospital.

David was told to 'get some fresh air' after being refused admittance to the Carseview unit in Dundee in 2016.

This week the pair's petition will be launched at the Scottish Parliament, which they hope will help highlight the problems with current services and prevent further “unnecessary deaths”.

It will also call for an automatic FAI into the death of anyone who dies by suicide and has engaged with mental health services in the three months prior to their death.

Karen said: “It has taken a long time to get this far but I am confident this will help to start the conversation and help politicians, and members of the public who don't know about this, see there is something drastically wrong with our mental health services in Scotland.

“Luke shouldn't have died. We tried everything we could to get him help and he was still failed.

“I wasn't listened to by doctors who kept telling me he was not suicidal. He hadn't slept for days and was behaving abnormally, yet they seemed to think he was fine.

“I have to do everything I can to make sure this will not happen to anyone else. It needs to change, and people need to be able to access help when they need it, immediately.”

Karen, 31, has asked for an inquiry into her partner's death, but has been refused by the Crown Office.

She has also met the mental health minister Clare Haughey, but said she felt let down by the politician's lack of understanding of the seriousness of the problem facing people across the country.

NHS Lanarkshire have previously denied any wrongdoing following a review of the circumstances surrounding Luke's death, and say their staff acted appropriately.

Karen, said: “If we cannot get people the help they need urgently, when they are in the most vulnerable state, then what chance do we have of stopping this happening again? I know this isn't just a problem where I live. It is happening all over Scotland and it's about time mental illness is treated the same way as a physical problem.”

Gillian, 29, said: “This petition is vital because it has been apparent that mental health failings are not unique to NHS Tayside (although it does seem to be more concentrated here). The same failings are happening up and down the country.

"The culture of secrecy and denial in the NHS needs to stop; no lessons will ever truly be learnt until we have genuinely independent and transparent investigations.

"It is wrong that a prisoner who dies in custody will get an automatic FAI yet those who die in hospital or, in David’s Ramsay and Luke Henderson’s cases; contact with the NHS in the days leading up to their deaths yet were turned away. We have to fight for an FAI to find out why these failings happened?

"Something needs to change and quickly; too many people are dying. There are too many of us saying the same thing for this to be a coincidence.”

Following the death of fellow campaigner Gillian's uncle David, an inquiry was launched into the Carseview unit at Ninewells hospital in Dundee.

Relatives of at least 10 people who have died by suicide claim the deaths could have been avoided.

Another man, Dale Thompson also took his own life days after being discharged from Carseview in 2015.

His distraught mother previously told MSPs that his son was informed there was “nothing wrong with him”.

The health board admitted in 2016 that Dale's “care and treatment fell below the standard.”

It is the latest in a series of concerns raised about psychiatric facility, which is also at the centre of abuse allegations.