Family seeks answers after 28yo woman dies by suicide in Sydney's Liverpool Hospital

Like the Lana Del Rey song, Florence Lee loved to perform. She was young and beautiful. The 28 year old was a mum to two year old Noah, a concert pianist and high school piano teacher and an adored daughter and sister, and we shared everything together. We were the three peas in the pod, The Three Musketeers. 2 days before Florence died by suicide in hospital, her family had taken her out to celebrate the last day of Lunar New Year. They had no idea that this would be their final moment together. We’re just stuck with this guilt of was there something else that we could have done? Wasn’t it was. We just all thought the hospital was just safe, was the safest place for her. But it wasn’t. Florence had been battling anxiety six days before she died. She attempted to take her own life inside the acute adult mental health ward at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney. Her family say they were assured she’d received the highest level of care, including around the clock supervision. She was in 24 hour constantly to be supervised and she did not get it. We thought we were sending her to a safe place, not a place to die. Where else was she supposed to be? A spokesperson for the hospital says It extends its deepest sympathy to Florence’s family. And it can’t comment further because the coroner’s investigating the most shocking and traumatic thing I’ve ever had to go through. Just watching your sister, who you grew up with, just laying there on a hospital bed, lifeless. What’s wrong with the public system? Florence’s death follows the suicide of 24 year old Mckaylee Owens Watts just days earlier at Saint Vincent’s mental health ward in Melbourne. Mckaylee’s family in Adelaide say the public system failed them and left her unsupervised for too long. I don’t think I will ever recover from losing my girl. The latest data shows there’s been an increase in the number of inpatient suicides across Australia, with 18 deaths in 2020-2021. The ABC has spoken to several families who have lost loved ones to suicide in mental health facilities. A large proportion involved women aged in their 20s. Psychiatrists say some of the most junior staff work on the inpatient wards and that’s something that I think many of us are keen to see change. We want to see more expertise, more experience, more senior positions being funded. The Leigh family want to see audits, to make sure inpatient wards are following standards and better training and pay for nurses. Nothing can bring back on my floor now, Florence. It’s the most painful and heartbreaking thing to go through and I don’t want anyone else or anyone else’s family to go through something like we have.