‘They took my child from me': Families call for change after Indigenous suicides in same hospital

Sydney Morning Herald

23-04-2025

Jessica was an Indigenous woman with Aboriginal lineage from her father's side. Her great-grandfather was an Arrernte and Warumungu man, and part of the stolen generations.
Between March 2018 and January 2020, Jessica was hospitalised following self-harm or suicide attempts and on January 8, 2021, she was taken to Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital and placed in the ICU following a suicide attempt.
There, a doctor noted she had borderline personality disorder and ongoing suicidal ideation.
Days later on January 12, 2021, Jessica was admitted to the acute inpatient service as a voluntary patient, and on January 27 and 28, her family said she took unescorted leave, in contravention of her hospital risk assessment.
While off hospital grounds on her own, she purchased items she'd later use to take her life.
She was found unconscious in her hospital room at 12.40pm on January 28, 2021, and died four days later.
The family say the hospital owed them a duty of care and has begun legal proceedings against the hospital while also advocating for an inquest into Jessica's death, as they fear she wasn't provided with culturally safe care.
'She was just the most beautiful, caring, gentle, loving kid. Except to her herself,' Jones said.
Jessica's family has fond memories of her childhood, of her adopting a blue-tongue lizard as a pet and of lining snails up along her arms to feed it.
'I still remember a little girl at school who was a little left-of-centre and pretty difficult. Jess said, 'Mum, she's got no other friends, I've got to be her friend',' Jones says.
'That was grade 3.'
Jessica also loved cows, dogs and the cats at her aunt's property in Western Australia where she spent Christmases and other holidays during her teen years.
There, she connected with her Aboriginal heritage and bonded with the paternal aunty she'd grow to call her black mum, Aunty Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, the current Commissioner for Children and Young People in Western Australia.
Her family recall Jessica grew a little too fond of hair dye, colouring her locks all colours of the rainbow despite the pleas of her family to 'not this time'.
That, Jones says, later grew to be a warning sign that Jessica was trying to become a different person, and a sign she was spiralling as a chronic self-harmer when the demons took hold.
Jones says the only way to obtain documents about her daughter's death has been to apply under freedom of information laws, but more than four years later, she says she still has no idea what her daughter had in her system at the time she committed suicide.
'In my head, I have it that she was intoxicated,' she sobs.
'If it comes back that she was stone-cold sober, I'll have to re-write the whole story in my head.'
Jessica's two mums have since launched a civil case against the hospital as the law mandates civil proceedings commence within three years of a death. They don't know if an inquest will ever be held.
At a Yoorrook Justice Commission hearing in May last year, Aunty Jill Gallagher, the chief executive officer of Victoria's Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation [VACCHO], raised the issue of Indigenous suicides in hospital, including in Watts-Owens' case.
Gallagher said mandatory, cultural safety training – which might include more checks of patients – was a 'fundamental necessity' if the community was to receive equitable and respectful care for First Nations peoples.
At the time, Gallagher revealed that three Aboriginal people had killed themselves in hospitals in the preceding two years.
She said Watts-Owens, who worked at the Office of Public Prosecutions, admitted herself to St Vincent's Hospital mental health unit for help in January 2024. After receiving medication, the 24-year-old was left alone before she was found unresponsive, Gallagher said.
'They were not going there to die. They were going there for help and to live,' she told the commission.
For Sharon Watts, Makalie's mother, learning her daughter died at the same hospital in similar circumstances to Jessica Rain Jones has only compounded her grief.
She believes the hospital also failed in its duty of care for her daughter, a proud Tagalaka Worimi Kukatj woman, and is also hopeful of an inquest into her death.
'My child went to hospital because she wasn't feeling well. Since she was a little girl, I always said, 'bubba, go to doctor or hospital when you're not feeling well',' Watts says.
'How, in this day and age, are Jennie and I now sitting here in the same situation? They took my child from me. They had a duty of care.'
Watts says her daughter was a young, active, intelligent Aboriginal woman – one of five girls – who mentored others at university and was proud to be an advocate for Indigenous people and women.
'Makalie was a special child, one of five girls. I will not leave this earth until I get justice for my child so no other family has to go through what I had to go through,' Watts says.
'We loved her, we miss her and we grieve. The pain is unimaginable.'
Last month, the Coroners Court of Victoria revealed 27 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died by suicide in 2024, up from 22 in 2023, and 19 in 2022.
A report published by the Coroners Court of Victoria for the first time in March found:
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females, suicides most commonly occurred in those aged 18–24 (38.2 per cent) and 25–34 (35.3 per cent) between 2020 and 2024.
From 2020 to 2024, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides occurred more frequently in regional areas (54.9 per cent) than metropolitan areas (45.1 per cent). For non-Indigenous people, 66 per cent of suicides occurred in metropolitan Melbourne.
56.6 per cent of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides were people aged under 35 years, compared to 30.2 per cent of non-Indigenous suicides.
The data showed the average annual rate of Victorian suicides among this demographic remains almost three times higher than the non-Indigenous population.
The report also found stressors contributing to suicides between 2020 and 2023 included diagnosed and suspected mental ill health, interpersonal concerns, substance use, exposure to family violence and recent contact with the justice system.
At the time, State Coroner John Cain labelled the findings 'deeply concerning' and said it was critical to ensure proper supports were in place to drive down suicides in these communities.
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This week a Coroners Court spokesperson said the investigation into Jessica's death was ongoing, with no further hearing dates currently scheduled for this investigation.
St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne chief executive officer Nicole Tweddle offered the organisation's sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of Jessica and Makalie.
Tweedle says even with the efforts of skilled people, motivated by the best of intentions, premature and preventable Aboriginal deaths in institutional settings – including healthcare – continue to confront Australia.
Tweddle says St Vincent's has made changes to its acute mental health service – and in other areas of the hospital – to make it safer and to respond to issues raised by Jessica's death.
These include working with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and Karabena Consulting to improve the cultural safety of people in their care.
'We have been open to guidance and best-practice recommendations on what to change or improve. We will always be open to such advice,' Tweddle says.
'Nothing we say will reduce the sorrow and hurt felt by these two young women's families, friends and communities, nor diminish their need for answers. What we commit ourselves to doing is always being open and working towards better health outcomes for First Nations Australians.'