Death preventable ... Charmaine Dragun.
The suicide death of newsreader Charmaine Dragun was probably preventable if her mental condition had been properly diagnosed, a Sydney coroner has found.
He also said the suicide would not have happened if Dragun had been prevented access to the cliff edge at The Gap.
Deputy State Coroner Malcolm MacPherson said the diagnosis that Dragun suffered from depression was "almost certainly wrong" and she most likely had a bipolar disorder.
The coroner said if the health professionals treating Dragun had made the correct diagnosis "she would have been properly treated with a mood stabiliser and she probably would not have committed suicide".
The coroner was handing down his findings at the Coroner's Court in Glebe today into the death of the 29-year-old, who jumped to her death at The Gap in Sydney's east, on November 2, 2007.
The coroner made a number of recommendations, including the need for increased awareness among health professionals to exclude a bipolar disorder in all patients presenting with signs and symptoms of depression.
He also said the issue of funding for the completion of suicide prevention work at The Gap was vital.
Dragun had a budding career with Network Ten and was about to marry when she committed suicide.
The coroner said he was comfortably satisfied her death was an act of suicide.
"Her jump from the cliff at the gap was done with intent and in the full knowledge of its consequences," he said.
He said the change in her drugs regime in the lead-up to the death could not be said to have "caused" her suicide, in the sense that they put the idea into her head or "caused" her to behave in an irrational way and with no control over her actions.
"Quite apart from the deficiencies in her management by her health professionals, Charmaine's suicide would not have happened if she had been prevented access to the cliff edge at The Gap," Mr MacPherson said.
Earlier, he described Dragun as a "talented and successful newsreader" who seemingly had everything to live for.
He noted that her family and partner believed that she would have wanted "to assist others struggling with mental illness" and therefore wanted her story to be told.
Dragun's mother said outside court today she hoped the recommended changes in mental health care would mean her daughter "has not died in vain".
Mrs Dragun said it had been very emotional morning but a "very fruitful one".
She said "we can all learn" from the coroner’s investigation and "we can all make a difference".
"Hopefully the medical profession will read and take in the findings and we will see a difference in medical health care," she said.
"My daughter then has not died in vain."
Asked to describe her daughter, she said she was "beautiful, bubbly and the most caring and wonderful daughter anyone could have".
Dragun’s long-term love, Simon Struthers - whom she was planning to marry on her 30th birthday - told reporters the inquest had provided a positive outcome to help other people.
"I think even if it goes some way to even just raising a bit of awareness and started people talking about it in the community, that is a start," he said.
He said people had to realise the issue of mental health should be talked about openly.
Asked what advice he had for people in Dragun’s mental health position, Mr Struthers said he urged them to talk to their friends and families who, would be with them "every step of the way".
AAP