There were "failures" in the care provided for anorexia sufferer Alana Goldsmith at a Sydney eating disorder clinic before her death, a coroner has found.
Ms Goldsmith was 23 when she left the Wesley Eating Disorder Clinic (WEDC) on the afternoon of July 22, 2011 and took her own life at Summer Hill in Sydney's inner-west.
In Magistrate Mark Douglass's report published on Monday, it was stated Ms Goldsmith's treatment at WEDC "was adequate but not optimal".
"The unpredictable nature of suicide makes prevention difficult. The mistakes and failures at WEDC did not lead to Alana's death."
In July 2011, a WEDC doctor was concerned that Ms Goldsmith's weight was in the moderately severe range of 42 kilograms.
Ms Goldsmith had been in and out of hospitals for two years dealing with her eating disorder before being admitted to the WEDC on July 18, 2011.
"Not being aware that Alana twice left the WEDC on the day of her death until it was too late to initiate a response is also a failing and of concern," Mr Douglass said.
"If staff had detected her absences, particularly her first absence, there would have been interventions and a change of her risk category that would have demanded regular checks perhaps at half-hour intervals."
There was also a lack of professional rigour in maintaining attendance checks, he said.
"However, considering all of the evidence and detailed submissions, none of the failings were causative of Alana's death."
The Goldsmith family requested an inquest after her death to review patient care and explore the issues affecting eating disorder sufferers, carers and practitioners.
Mr Douglass told Glebe Coroner's Court last month that it had been a "complex and harrowing matter with many difficulties".
Her family has said that Ms Goldsmith started wrestling with the illness when she was 15 but managed to hide it from her friends and family for many years.
"Alana was a fun-loving, vivacious and intelligent young woman until anorexia nervosa starved her brain and destroyed her hopes and dreams," her sister Simone Goldsmith said in July.
Butterfly Foundation chief executive Christine Morgan has said people with eating disorders needed specialised treatment.
"It has the highest fatality rate of any mental illness and we cannot ignore that," she said.
* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Share
