Extract from ABC News
Posted
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Will Fowell, Talieha Nebauer and Caitlin Wilkinson Whiticker died after the Barrett Centre closed. (Supplied)
Disciplinary proceedings are underway against two
Queensland public servants in response to a public inquiry into the
closure of the Barrett Centre youth mental health facility.
The
Public Service Commission has advised the Government there were grounds
for disciplinary action after an independent review of Margaret Wilson
QC's findings from the Barrett Centre Commission of Inquiry, handed down
in June.The ABC has confirmed that Queensland Health is acting on that recommendation.
The Palaszczuk Government launched the inquiry last year, honouring an election promise given within days of an ABC investigation revealing government documents had warned of the potential risk of death and need for alternative care options if the Barrett Centre was closed.
The Barrett Centre was Queensland's only long-term residential unit for young people with severe mental illness, and was closed by former health minister Lawrence Springborg in January 2014.
Three former Barrett Centre patients took their own lives within eight months of the facility's closure.
Department staff sent email
The ABC has confirmed a department-wide email has been sent out advising public servants that the disciplinary process was underway.
The two employees will have the opportunity to respond before a final decision is made by the Queensland Health director-general Michael Walsh.
Families of those affected by the closure have been told of the move.
Commissioner Wilson's report slammed the processes leading to the centre's closure.
She found Mr Springborg was poorly advised when he chose to redirect funds away from a replacement facility.
The inquiry also found no person or entity assumed responsibility or accountability for the decision-making processes about the centre's closure.
Other criticisms included inadequate briefing notes, poor record-keeping and communication with patients, families and staff.
Commissioner Wilson said plans for a replacement centre were dumped in 2012 because of cost and planning pressures.
"Before that was done there was no analysis of the needs of the young people who accessed the Barrett Adolescent Centre, no express consideration of how those young people would be cared for, no consultation with specialist child psychiatrists and no community consultation," she said.
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