{"id":534458,"date":"2026-01-22T11:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534458\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:28:10","slug":"st-vincents-hospital-charged-over-2024-death-of-makalie-watts-owen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/534458\/","title":{"rendered":"St Vincent’s Hospital charged over 2024 death of Makalie Watts-Owen"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne has been charged over the death of a young Aboriginal woman who died by suicide while checked in as a patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The family of<\/strong>\u00a0Makalie Watts-Owen has given permission to use her name and image.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Makalie Owens-Watts admitted herself to the mental health unit at St Vincent’s in February 2024, before taking her own life.<\/p>\n

In a statement, WorkSafe Victoria said the hospital was facing two charges after “failing to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks”.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n

Makalie’s mother Sharon Watts said the hospital had failed her daughter in her time of need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“St Vincent’s should be held accountable, so this never happens again to anyone else’s child,” Ms Watts said.<\/p>\n

“In the almost two years since she left us the grief has been overwhelming, but today’s announcement from WorkSafe is a step towards achieving justice in her name.”<\/p>\n

A St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne spokesperson said the hospital offered its condolences to the family of Makalie Watts-Owens, but that it was unable to comment further as the Worksafe investigation was ongoing.<\/p>\n

Family pushes for answers<\/p>\n

Ms Watts is being represented by Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), and has asked for answers about her daughter’s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

VALS chief executive Nerita Waight said the service would continue to support Ms Watts and her family in their pursuit for answers.<\/p>\n

“Hospitals are meant to be a place of safety and care for vulnerable people seeking support yet we have many instances that show that they are far from that for our communities,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The circumstances around Makalie’s passing are tragic. Makalie had a full life ahead of her, she wanted to study law and work in Child Protection. My heart breaks for Sharon and all those who loved Makalie.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Makalie Watts-Owen died just one month before her 24th birthday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The death of Ms Watts-Owen was raised at Victoria’s truth-telling inquiry last year<\/a>, as part of its new investigation into injustice in the state’s health systems.<\/p>\n

VALS principal managing lawyer Siobhan Doyle said there was “well documented evidence” that First Nations people faced greater risks in situations such as the one faced by Ms Owens-Watts.<\/p>\n

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience higher rates of mental health issues, and are at a higher risk of self-harm and suicide,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When our hospitals and health care workers do not provide a holistic, trauma informed and culturally capable care, people’s lives are put at risk.”<\/p>\n

The matter is listed for a filing hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on February 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne has been charged over the death of a young Aboriginal woman who died…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":534459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11341,4740,4446,6478,236644,517,50,229566,1197,9509],"class_list":{"0":"post-534458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-aboriginal","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-death","11":"tag-hospital","12":"tag-makalie-owens-watts","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-st-vincents","16":"tag-suicide","17":"tag-worksafe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115938518990401539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}