Investigations launched into women who died by suicide while admitted to St Vincent’s mental health unit

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A grieving mother is demanding answers after her 24-year-old daughter died by suicide inside a Melbourne mental health facility. The First Nations women Makalie Owen-Watts took herself to St Vincents Hospital to get help. Her mum Sharon says the hospital failed its duty of care to keep her daughter safe.

Transcript

00:00 McKaylee Owens-Watts wanted to become a lawyer and was meant to graduate from her arts degree

00:07 this year. But her mum Sharon says her daughter will never get to live out her dream because

00:12 the health system failed her.

00:14 It's the most painful thing in the whole world to lose someone that you love and care about.

00:21 The 24-year-old told her mum she was feeling unwell and took herself to St Vincent's Hospital

00:26 after work last week to get help. McKaylee told staff she was having suicidal thoughts,

00:32 was given a sedative and left in a room for more than half an hour. Nurses tried to resuscitate

00:37 her but her life support was turned off on Monday.

00:41 It's just unthinkable. They're accountable, they had a duty of care and they failed my

00:47 daughter and now we don't have a daughter, we don't have a sister, we don't have a friend.

00:55 Sharon says her daughter was left unsupervised for too long and is demanding answers from

01:00 the hospital.

01:01 She's indigenous, she's under 25, we have the highest suicide rates in the world, in

01:08 Australia. She was asking for help, she never got the help that she needed.

01:15 What a terrible and tragic incident has occurred here. It's deeply sad, clearly deeply distressing

01:21 for the young woman's family.

01:24 Suicides were at a four year high in Victoria in 2023 and data shows four people died by

01:30 suicide in inpatient facilities last financial year. St Vincent's says it offers its sincere

01:36 condolences to McKaylee's family and it's reported the matter to the relevant authorities.

01:42 There will be the appropriate investigative work done, particularly via the coroner.

01:48 Sharon says she hopes lessons are learnt from her daughter's death.

01:51 I don't think I will ever recover from losing my girl but I just want no other family to

01:58 go through what we've gone through.

02:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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