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Warning: This story contains the name and images of deceased Indigenous people.
A Melbourne hospital has been charged by the state’s workplace safety watchdog over the death of an Aboriginal woman who voluntarily admitted herself for psychiatric help and died by suicide shortly after.
WorkSafe confirmed on Thursday that St Vincent’s Hospital faces two charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to ensure “that persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks” over the death of 24-year-old Makalie Watts-Owen.
The Tagalaka, Kukatja and Worimi woman had just celebrated her 24th birthday and was working at the Office of Public Prosecutions when she died after being admitted to the hospital in February 2024.
Watts-Owen was studying law and had dreams of working in child protection when she finished her degree.
“The patient took their own life after they were admitted for treatment in the hospital’s Acute Inpatient Service,” WorkSafe said in a statement.
Her family said she had been given medication to help her sleep, but she was left alone long enough in her hospital room in the St Vincent’s mental health unit to end her own life.
Her mother, Sharon Watts, who has called for a full investigation into her daughter’s death, welcomed the charges.
“Makalie should still be with us today,” she said in a statement. “St Vincent’s failed to keep my child safe, she was seeking support, and they failed her. St Vincent’s should be held accountable, so this never happens again to anyone else’s child.”
She said the grief that consumed her since her daughter’s death was overwhelming.
“I just want her back,” Watts said.
“Today’s announcement from WorkSafe is a step towards achieving justice in her name. But this fight is not over. Her life mattered and she deserved better.”
Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, which is representing Watts-Owen’s family, said hospitals were meant to be places of safety and care for vulnerable people.
“Yet we have many instances that show that they are far from that for our communities,” she said.
“The circumstances around Makalie’s passing are tragic. Makalie had a full life ahead of her … My heart breaks for Sharon and all those who loved Makalie.”
Siobhan Doyle, who is the principal managing lawyer of the civil and human rights practice at the legal service, said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced higher rates of mental health issues, and were at elevated risk of self-harm and suicide.
“There is clear, well-documented evidence of this,” she said. “It is unfathomable that we are still having to advocate for hospitals to eliminate ligature risks. When our hospitals and healthcare workers do not provide a holistic, trauma informed and culturally capable care, people’s lives are put at risk.”
Makalie Watts-Owen is one of two Indigenous women who have died by suicide at St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy within three years of each other.
The other woman, 22-year-old Jessica Rain Jones, took her own life while at the hospital on January 28 in 2021. Her family has also called for an investigation into the circumstances of her death.
In an open letter last year in response to both the Indigenous women’s suicides, the chief executive of St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Nicole Tweddle, said that 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.
“This is a challenge shared by all healthcare providers and their teams, governments,
policymakers, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” she wrote at the time.
Tweddle added that following Jones’ death the health service had introduced changes within the hospital, including working with Aboriginal groups to improve the cultural safety of First Nations patients.
At a Yoorrook Justice Commission hearing in May 2024, Aunty Jill Gallagher, the chief executive officer of Victoria’s Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, raised the issue of Indigenous suicides in hospital.
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 taken their own lives in hospitals in the preceding two years.
A spokesman for St Vincent’s Hospital said the health service offered its sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Makalie Watts-Owen, but was unable to make further comment because it was an active Worksafe investigation.
The matter is listed for a hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on February 17.
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