NT: Coroner recommends changes following boy's suicide

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2001
NT: Coroner recommends changes following boy's suicide

DARWIN, Dec 19 AAP - A coroner who investigated a 15-year-old boy's suicide in a Darwin
detention centre today made a range of recommendations including improved staff training.

The boy, who cannot be named for Aboriginal cultural reasons, hanged himself in the
Don Dale Detention Centre in February last year while serving a mandatory sentence.

Coroner Dick Wallace recommended staff receive formal training in recognising risk
factors and mental illness in young people.

He also recommended regular practice sessions in emergency procedures.

The magistrate also called for the Director of Public Prosecutions and Police Commission
to develop strategies to ensure bush courts were served by capable prosecutors.

"(I also recommend) that sufficient resources be allocated to Aboriginal legal aid
organisations and that those organisations allocate their resources so that their clientele
at bush courts receive a quality of service comparable to the clientele in major centres,"

Mr Wallace said.

AAP rmg/bd/cjh/sb

KEYWORD: MANDATORY

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