Finding into death of Kirstan McRae-Jansen
Deceased
Kirstan McRae-Jansen
Demographics
31y, female
Date of death
2012-01-07
Finding date
2014-09-01
Cause of death
plastic bag asphyxia
AI-generated summary
Kirstan McRae-Jansen, a 31-year-old woman with chronic schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and substance abuse, died by plastic bag asphyxia using an LPG bottle. She was under Community Treatment Order with Eastern Health. The family alleged inadequate medication monitoring, unhelpful medications, insufficient family communication, brief hospital stays, and fragmented care involving multiple providers. The coroner found the treatment and management provided by psychiatrist Dr H. and case manager RPN Zobel were reasonable and appropriate. The coroner noted Kirstan's persistent denial of illness severity, poor coping mechanisms, and increasing persecutory ideation before her death. No clinical mismanagement was identified, though the case highlights challenges in managing treatment-resistant, non-concordant patients with complex mental illness who resist family involvement despite ongoing suicide risk.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Drugs involved
Contributing factors
- chronic schizophrenia with persistent psychotic symptoms
- borderline personality disorder
- substance abuse history
- multiple prior suicide attempts
- poor medication concordance and denial of illness
- poor coping mechanisms and low distress tolerance
- increasing persecutory ideation before death
- resistance to family involvement in care
Full text
Related cases
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —