A Perth teenager took her own life hours after leaving hospital, despite attempting suicide just 25 minutes before she was allowed to leave, a review has found.

Hailee Hildebrandt, 18, was a mental health patient at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, Western Australia when she died hours after she left the facility on January 13.

Clinical notes described the teenager as being at ‘chronic risk’ of self-harm and suicide, with the review revealing she had attempted suicide shortly before leaving hospital and made ‘explicit statements’ about her intention to take her own life.

Her mother, Stacey Hildebrandt, has called for urgent improvements to mental health services and questioned why her daughter was allowed to leave the hospital despite her deteriorating condition.

‘I cannot figure out how they couldn’t recognise the crisis she was in and still let her go,’ she told 102.5 ABC Perth Radio.

Among the other troubling findings, the teenager had asked staff to contact her mother to collect her belongings, but staff did not, while there was no phone number on file because she had removed her mother as her next of kin.

Ms Hildebrandt said this was no excuse, as hospital staff had previously contacted her and should have had her number. She also said she should have been notified that she had been removed as her daughter’s next of kin.

‘I’m unsure how somebody that mentally unwell was able to remove a next of kin,’ she said.

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A review has found serious failings in the care of teenager Hailee Hildebrandt before her death
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Ms Hildebrandt attempted suicide just 25 minutes before she was allowed to leave hospital
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The teenager left the hospital without her medication or personal belongings, while no family members or friends were contacted.

After leaving, she sent a series of distressing text messages to her mother saying she was going to kill herself.

Ms Hildebrandt then called police, who traced Hailee’s phone and found her unresponsive.

A South Metropolitan Health Service (SMHS) spokesperson described Hailee’s death as ‘tragic’ and said the service had accepted all 21 recommendations contained in the SAC1 report.

One key recommendation calls for a new ‘robust’ process to identify a personal support person as the primary point of contact when there is no next of kin.

The report also recommends a ‘red flag’ process to strengthen leave and discharge planning.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, the spokesperson said work was already underway to implement the recommendations and that SMHS remained committed to engaging with Hailee’s family.

Mental Health Minister Meredith Hammat said she expected all recommendations from the review to be implemented in full.

‘I acknowledge the immense pain her family continues to endure, and I want to assure Stacey that the findings of this review are being treated with the seriousness they warrant,’ she said.

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Ms Hildebrandt was a patient at Fiona Stanley Hospital (pictured)
She said the government remained committed to strengthening Western Australia’s mental health system by ‘expanding services, strengthening the workforce and improving models of care’, while learning from reviews such as this to ensure the system continued to improve.

Ms Hammat also called for a further investigation into the teenager’s care.

‘I have written to the chief psychiatrist asking that they undertake a further investigation,’ she said.

A child and adolescent psychiatrist from New South Wales has since been appointed to lead a further review into the care she received and the circumstances surrounding the young woman’s death.

WA Liberal Party deputy leader Libby Mettam said the report raised ‘serious questions about Hailee’s care’ and warned it was concerning that many of the issues identified were not new.

She backed the second investigation, saying recommendations were only meaningful if they were ‘actually implemented and followed’.

Ms Hildebrandt said she wanted the review’s findings to lead to meaningful change.

‘[We need to] learn from it, make the changes,’ she said.