Deceased
Mr W
Demographics
32y, male
Coroner
Coroner Sarah Gebert
Date of death
2019-04-05
Finding date
2023-03-16
Cause of death
Hanging
AI-generated summary
Mr W, a 32-year-old man with lifelong anxiety, previous suicide attempts, and childhood trauma, died by hanging on 5 April 2019. He had been receiving care from a psychologist (Dr Cattapan) and GP (Dr Smith) since December 2018, with diagnosis of depression and treatment with escitalopram. On 31 March 2019, he expressed suicidal intent; Ambulance Victoria provided phone-based mental health assessment and safety planning. Mr W reported feeling safe and declined hospital admission. He was referred to psychiatry on 28 March with appointment scheduled for late April. The coroner found no clinical fault, noting appropriate comprehensive assessment and management. Key lesson: when trauma-focused therapy (EMDR) is used in high-risk patients, family/partner involvement and awareness of symptom escalation (hallucinations, self-harm) may be important; current guidance on involving support persons in trauma treatment is limited in Australia.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes. Report an inaccuracy.
Specialties
Error types
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
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