Inquest into the deaths of Stacey Docherty and Seth Docherty

Case Number: 2017/78718 & 2017/78755

Date of Findings: 30 March 2022

Magistrate: Deputy State Coroner, Magistrate Harriet Grahame

Catchwords: CORONIAL LAW – mother/child homicide/suicide – Borderline Personality Disorder/complex post-traumatic stress disorder – Alprazolam – child protection – adequacy of handover process between caseworkers 

Responses

Recommendations

To the Secretary, Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ):

1. 1. That practice advice for DCJ staff, including but not limited to the Mental Health Practice Kit, and any relevant guidance for funded providers, be reviewed by DCJ in consultation with DCJ’s Psychological Services with a view to enhancing practitioners’ skills to collaborate with mental health providers. 
2. That DCJ give consideration to a standardised after-hours voicemail message being recorded on caseworkers’ mobile phones 
3. That DCJ incorporate practice guidance about the use of mobile phones into the orientation of new caseworkers, including the use of any standardised after-hours voicemail message. 
4. That DCJ give consideration to reviewing the existing mandate for transfer of cases between teams with a view to enhancing best practice principles for transfer of cases within teams. The review should consider the most urgent and high risk concerns and expectations about timescale for the new caseworker meeting the family.