'No credible plan' for mental health overhaul promised after teenagers death

Kate Savage died from self-inflicted injuries shortly after she left a mental health appointment. (Supplied: Meron Savage)

More than six years after her daughter Kate died at just 13, Meron Savage says she has lost faith that promises made by the WA government in the wake of the tragedy will ever be kept.

Kate Savage took her own life in 2020, moments after leaving an appointment with a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service clinic in Perth's southern suburbs.

A subsequent investigation by the state's chief psychiatrist found Kate had been let down by an under-funded and under-resourced mental health system.

A photo of Kate shared on social media by her mother. (Instagram: Meron Savage)

What was needed went "well-beyond a band-aid or temporary solution", Dr Nathan Gibson said, noting there was a significant escalation of serious mental health issues for children.

An "overhaul" of the system was promised by the state government in 2022 in response, but in a scathing review published today the state's Auditor General criticised the government for not following through.

Ms Savage said it was "heartbreaking" little appeared to have changed.

Meron Savage has become an advocate for supporting those with mental health illnesses.

"It seems as though nothing has moved on in six years," she said.

Ms Savage's view is backed up by the auditor general, who found efforts to transform mental health supports for Western Australian children and teenagers risk never being delivered without major change.

The mother of a teenage girl who died from self-inflicted injuries moments after a mental health appointment says a coronial inquest is the last chance to find out the truth about the 13-year-old's death.

In the wake of Kate's death, then-health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson committed to implementing all 32 recommendations from a landmark review into how the public health system cares for the mental health of infants, children and adolescents.

That included closing gaps between services, establishing clear processes when young people with mental health concerns present to emergency departments, and improving the ability for schools to address mental health and wellbeing.

But more than four years on, the state's auditor-general has found only one recommendation has been completed by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) — establishing clear roles and career pathways for Aboriginal mental health workers.

In her report, Caroline Spencer said the commission wasn't providing the level of leadership needed to pull off a reform of that size.

While the organisatio