Coronial cases highlight failings in mental health patient management

The state of mental health services is like a barometer of how well our public health system is working overall. Changes to patient care and staff safety have necessarily been on the reform agenda for mental health in recent years as details of mishandled cases come to light. Below are two such cases heard in Queensland's Coroners Court whose findings were handed down earlier this year. The details of both these cases offer instructive advice about how mental health care should not be delivered in our public system. More sadly, they highlight how vulnerability of people suffering severe episodes of mental illness once they're in the care of our health system.