Chief Psychiatrist's annual report 2008-09 - Department of Health

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 Chief Psychiatrist’s annual report 2008–09 It is the Coroner’s role to determine the cause of death and any contributing factors. The Chief Psychiatrist registers an interest with the Coroner to ensure the office receives the Coroner’s findings and any recommendations. In reporting a death, services submit the information available to them at the time they are notified of the death. This may vary depending on when the deceased person last had contact with the service or what details are known about the circumstances of the death. Services are required to describe the manner of death and identify whether a death appears to be: • ‘unexpected, unnatural or violent’ • due to ‘natural causes’ related to a medical condition or old age • of unknown cause. Suspected suicide was discontinued as a reporting category in 2008–09. Suspected suicides are now effectively included under the ‘unexpected, unnatural or violent’ category, together with deaths that, while ‘unexpected, unnatural or violent’, are not demonstrably indicative of suicide. Examples of the latter include deaths in a motor car accident, by drowning or in a house fire. Only a coroner of the State Coroner’s Office of Victoria can legally determine the underlying cause of a death, including a finding of suicide; 9 and such determination may be made some time after the year in which the death occurred. 2.6.1 Profile of deaths reported in 2008–09 The death of 503 consumers was reported to the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist in 2008–09. Of these, 66 per cent were male (331 consumers) and 34 per cent (171 consumers) were female. The gender split in 2007–08 was 62 per cent males (261 consumers) and 38 per cent females (157 consumers). Thirty-nine per cent of reported deaths were attributed to natural causes. Figure 13: Reportable deaths by cause, 2008–09 9 Suicide refers to the deliberate taking of one’s life. To be classified as a suicide, a death must be recognised as due to other than natural causes and it must be established by a coronial inquiry that the death has resulted from a deliberate act of the deceased with the intention of taking his or her own life. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Suicides 2006.
Chief Psychiatrist’s annual report 2008–09 17 Figure 14: Reportable deaths by cause and gender, 2008–09 Figure 14 shows that male consumers accounted for 62 per cent of all reportable deaths and for 67 per cent of all unexpected, unnatural or violent deaths in 2008–09. Figure 15: Reportable deaths by age, 2008-09 Figure 15 shows the distribution of reportable deaths by age group. All reportable deaths for consumers under 20 years of age were classified unexpected, unnatural or violent (U/U/V). This proportion decreases to 18 per cent of reportable deaths of consumers over 90. The highest peak of mortality not attributable to natural causes is among clients, or former clients, in their thirties.
Page 1 and 2: Chief Psychiatrist’s annual repor
Page 5: February 2010 The Honourable Lisa N
Page 8 and 9: A large segment of the work of the
Page 25: Chief Psychiatrist’s annual repor
Page 49: Chief Psychiatrist’s annual repor

Chief Psychiatrist's annual report 2008-09 - Department of Health

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?