Staff Editorial

Sept. 23, 2026

In January 2023, former Massachusetts labor and delivery nurse Lindsay Clancy was accused of murdering her three small children and attempting suicide. She pleaded not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, as her defense argued that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis as she had issues with her mental health treatment that contributed to the deterioration of her mental health condition. The prosecution said that Clancy was criminally responsible for her actions and she fully understood what she was doing. The case infamously ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4. A status hearing scheduled for Sept. 29 will cover what is next and the possibility of retrial. The case raises a broader question that extends beyond one courtroom: What happens when a person asks for help, but the healthcare system does not fully connect all of the pieces of a person’s healthcare information?

Clancy's case has illustrated how complicated mental health care can become when multiple providers are involved. Prior to the deaths of her children, Lindsay Clancy connected with multiple healthcare professionals and was given several different forms of psychiatric treatments. Court records have shown that numerous psychiatric medications were prescribed to Clancy by multiple providers in the months leading up to the tragedy. Clancy's defense team claimed that her treatment history proves problems with the way that her mental health care was managed and that her mental health condition was becoming progressively severe without a sufficient response. Prosecutors have challenged that interpretation and presented other evidence concerning her behavior and mental state. 

The disagreement shows that having multiple professionals involved does not necessarily mean that those professionals have the same understanding of a patient’s condition. For example, one provider may know about the patient's medication, another provider may know about symptoms, and a hospital may have information that both providers are not fully aware of. So it brings the question of who is responsible for closing the gaps between multiple providers' communication within the system. Access to several services does not automatically create coordinated care. A patient can have appointments, prescriptions, and multiple providers involved in their care while still experiencing gaps between those services provided.

The healthcare disconnect becomes more critical when considering postpartum mental health. Even though postpartum psychosis is rarer, it is still considered a psychiatric emergency. This condition can involve severe changes in a person's thoughts, perceptions and ability to distinguish reality. Symptoms are not always obvious or present during a single appointment, and different providers may interpret that same patient differently. When a doctor treating a patient during pregnancy may notice one set of concerns, a psychiatrist may see an altogether different concern, and family members may notice other changes that were not present during an appointment. If any of those observations are not clearly communicated, the healthcare system may only see individual pieces of a much bigger problem.

Healthcare providers need a reliable way to communicate among one another. Shared medical records can help doctors better understand a patient's history, medications, and previous treatment, as technology alone cannot solve the problem. Providers must also review information and effectively communicate when a patient's conditions change. Continuity of care is another important part of the solution. Specialized postpartum mental health care could also help healthcare providers in recognizing serious symptoms and understanding when a patient needs urgent psychiatric treatment. Families should also have ways to communicate serious concerns or issues to healthcare providers, because people close to the patient may notice changes that do not appear during an appointment.

Ultimately, health care cannot simply be a collection of appointments. It has to function as a connected system. When a patient cries out for help, is the healthcare system capable of gathering all the information together quickly enough to understand what that patient needs? Overall, the biggest problem in healthcare is not that help does not exist. It is that the help is not connected due to a broken healthcare system. If we can fix the broken healthcare system, we can make the connection.