Pollini, Brett Andrew
Deceased
Brett Andrew Pollini
Demographics
43y, male
Date of death
2011-12-09
Finding date
2013-11-11
Cause of death
Hanging
AI-generated summary
Brett Andrew Pollini, a 43-year-old fire station officer with bipolar affective disorder, died by suicide following a distressing telephone call with the Child Support Agency (CSA) regarding a substantial increase in child support. Critical clinical lessons include the importance of monitoring medication compliance in bipolar disorder patients—Mr Pollini had ceased his mood stabiliser (Epilim) for approximately 12 months without medical supervision, significantly impairing his ability to cope with crises. He had not consulted a medical practitioner for six months prior to his death. The CSA officer's unprofessional responses and the misinterpretation of the call as implying loss of custody acted as a tipping point, but the underlying vulnerability resulted from untreated bipolar disorder. Clinicians should actively monitor adherence to mood-stabilising medication and ensure regular review of patients with bipolar disorder, especially during life stressors. Early intervention and continuity of psychiatric care could have mitigated risk.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- Untreated bipolar affective disorder
- Non-compliance with mood-stabilising medication (Epilim) for 12 months
- Lack of medical review for 6 months prior to death
- Acrimonious child custody and child support disputes
- CSA telephone call managed unprofessionally
- Mistaken belief that ex-spouse was seeking full custody following CSA call
- Acute life stressor regarding perceived loss of access to children
- Past history of suicide attempts (age 16 and 18)
Coroner's recommendations
- That the incident be fed into any relevant review process being undertaken by the Department of Human Services
- That consideration be given to introducing a process which ensures that CSA employees do not take their headsets off prior to terminating any call
- That there be mandatory reporting and a mandatory review of all calls that are terminated by a CSA employee against the customer's wishes
- That consideration be given to flagging all threats of self-harm in the system, regardless of whether the threat is subsequently withdrawn, and that further thought be put into establishing more continuity of service for customers such as Mr Pollini
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