A Queensland teenager who took her own life a year after she left an adolescent mental health centre feared someone would kill her in the months before her death.
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Caitlin Wilkinson Whiticker was one of three teens who killed themselves within eight months of Campbell Newman's Liberal National state government closing the Barrett Adolescent Centre in 2014.
The 18-year-old was a long-term patient at the centre and struggled when staff began leaving in 2013, her mother Justine Wilkinson on Tuesday told an inquest.
She grew increasingly erratic, paranoid and stopped regularly taking her medication, the inquest heard.
"She met some people and one girl who was at risk of becoming homeless ... moved in with Caitlin for a while because there were issues and then she wouldn't move out," Ms Wilkinson said.
"Caitlin got really paranoid about her and said she was going to kill her ... (and) was saying she would come and she would poison the dogs."
Ms Wilkinson has lamented the lack of support services available when her daughter was in the process of switching to adult care services.
She says some former patients of the Barrett Centre are still struggling to cope after its closure and she wants better support for teenagers in similar circumstances.
It was the only facility to provide long-term, in-patient treatment for young people with complex mental illnesses and its closure quickly became a politically and emotionally charged issue.
A replacement facility at the Prince Charles Hospital is not expected to open until 2020.
The inquest will also look into the deaths of 17-year-old Talieha Nebauer and Will Fowell, 18, and whether the centre's closure affected these teens.
Australian Associated Press
