❓ A parliamentary question regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Carly Elliott, focusing on the adequacy of mental health services provided to her prior to her probable suicide. The Minister's response defends the actions taken, citing patient autonomy and privacy restrictions.
AnsweredQoN 5363Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the death of 20 year old Carly Elliott on 31 March 2011 at her home from probable suicide. I have been asked by Carly's parents to raise this matter, and I ask -
(1) Why, despite an urgent referral by Carly's General Practitioner to Alma Street on the 29 October 2010 due to her severe depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, was an appointment not made available until 15 November 2010?
(2) Why, given Carly's non-attendance at both this appointment and at a subsequent one on 25 November 2010, wasn't an urgent follow-up made by the mental health emergency response team?
(3) Given Carly's known illness history of being uncooperative, not engaging and not attending appointments; why, when on the two occasions she did reach out, phoning Alma Street in distress asking for help, didn't the mental health emergency response team members immediately respond and go out to Carly, instead, leaving it to her to follow through on making and attending appointments?
(1) Why, despite an urgent referral by Carly's General Practitioner to Alma Street on the 29 October 2010 due to her severe depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, was an appointment not made available until 15 November 2010?
(2) Why, given Carly's non-attendance at both this appointment and at a subsequent one on 25 November 2010, wasn't an urgent follow-up made by the mental health emergency response team?
(3) Given Carly's known illness history of being uncooperative, not engaging and not attending appointments; why, when on the two occasions she did reach out, phoning Alma Street in distress asking for help, didn't the mental health emergency response team members immediately respond and go out to Carly, instead, leaving it to her to follow through on making and attending appointments?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
13 June 2012
Responded by
Minister for Mental Health
Response time
78 days
(1) Carly Elliot was contacted 5 hours after the GP referral was received.
(2) Between 29
th
October 2010 and 3
rd
March 2011 contact was made with Carly 3 times and 3 further messages were left for her. Contact was made individually with both parents and Carly's GP.
(3) Carly was not an involuntary patient of ASC and as such, the clinical team was unable to require her to attend appointments.
Assertions in the Members line of questions are incorrect, however, privacy aspects regarding confidential clinical information prevents me from providing a more detailed answer.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
(2) Between 29
th
October 2010 and 3
rd
March 2011 contact was made with Carly 3 times and 3 further messages were left for her. Contact was made individually with both parents and Carly's GP.
(3) Carly was not an involuntary patient of ASC and as such, the clinical team was unable to require her to attend appointments.
Assertions in the Members line of questions are incorrect, however, privacy aspects regarding confidential clinical information prevents me from providing a more detailed answer.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.