Finding into death of Catherine Alison Lynch

Contributing factors

• Family violence perpetrated by partner including coercive control, threats, stalking and emotional abuse
• Failure of mental health clinicians to identify, assess or respond to disclosures of family violence
• No referrals to specialist family violence services despite multiple indicators
• Lack of mandatory family violence training for private mental health professionals
• Private mental health professionals not prescribed under MARAM framework
• Deterioration in mental health in period prior to death
• Breach of FVIO by partner and continued abuse despite protective orders
• Partner's encouragement to patient to take own life as documented in diary

Coroner's recommendations

1. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists introduce mandatory family violence training into their fellowship training for new psychiatrists
2. The Psychology Board of Australia explicitly recognise in the Professional Competencies for Psychologists that competency in family violence risk assessment and management is relevant to all practice settings and explicitly outline an expectation that all psychologists are competent in family violence identification, assessment and management
3. The Psychology Board of Australia consider this finding and include mandatory education on family violence identification, assessment and management in their recommendations to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on the redesign of the psychology higher education pathway