An interstate psychiatrist has been brought in to undertake an external review into the medical discharge of four mental health patients in Adelaide's south who had a "significant incident" or took their own life shortly after leaving hospital last year.

Key points: A review into the discharge of four mental health patients has been welcomed by an industry body

A review into the discharge of four mental health patients has been welcomed by an industry body An Adelaide woman says she has often been turned away from from emergency departments

An Adelaide woman says she has often been turned away from from emergency departments Industry expert says psychiatrists are under a lot of pressure when discharging patients

The South Australian Chief Psychiatrist John Brayley has recruited former ACT chief psychiatrist Peter Norrie to examine whether there were mistakes made during the discharge process.

Principal Community Visitor Maurice Corcoran welcomed the independent review, which began in December and is due to be released publicly early this year.

He said the review would also look into whether there were proper transitions between hospital and community-based care and provide much-needed answers for the families.

"I hope we can learn from the individual cases and pick up on whether there were any issues or concerns around the transfer of responsibilities and the case management of these cases so we can help prevent it in the future," he said.

"It's absolutely critical that we have better mental health services and open transparency on the transfer of patients from community to acute mental health services.

"Hopefully we get more support and resources to support people in the community before their mental health deteriorates so much that they require hospitalisation."

Claire Lontis sends "care packs" to those struggling to access mental health support in Adelaide. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

Suicidal patient said she was told to go home

Claire Lontis knows all too well the impact of being discharged early from hospital.

She is not one of the patients whose treatment is under investigation.

But the 27-year-old, who has Borderline Personality Disorder, said she had often presented to emergency departments (ED) distressed after self-harming, but was turned away.

She said on two occasions after leaving the emergency department, she tried to end her life.

"Had I stayed in the public system, I don't think I would be alive today," she said.

"I think there's a false narrative being pushed through Government-funded ad campaigns … that give the impression that if you need help, ask for it and it's available.

"The reality is that presenting to ED for mental health issues, you're sent away that day or the next day and it becomes a revolving door system of people presenting in states of acute crisis.

"I had a psychologist tell me you can go home, there was no follow up after trying to hurt myself and I lived by myself at that time, and I told them I was suicidal and I had a history of suicide attempts."

Claire Lontis said she had often been turned away from emergency departments. ( ABC News: Claire Campbell )

Ms Lontis said she knew she needed help from the age of 15 after experiencing episodes of "hysteria, crying and screaming".

Not knowing what to do or where to turn, her mother took her to the emergency department of the Women's and Children's Hospital.

"I was told that it was just normal teenage behaviour and I was sent home," she said.

"A few weeks later I was back in after a suicide attempt.

"If I'd received the help that I needed back then, then I wouldn't have lost my early-mid 20s to this illness."

Between the ages of 22 and 25, Ms Lontis said she presented to the emergency departments at Flinders Medical Centre, the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a private psychiatric hospital 17 times with suicidal ideations.

She said as a mental health patient she was not treated equally to patients with physical conditions and would be discharged from hospital as soon as she was "medically-cleared" with no follow-up.

"For me, the solution was getting private health insurance and seeing a private psychiatrist," she said.

"I am doing the best I've been doing in my whole life and that's because of that.

"But no one should have to pay for that kind of care because it's simply not affordable to so many people — it's life saving and it's critical."

Psychiatrists under enormous pressure

Principal Community Visitor Maurice Corcoran has welcomed the independent review. ( ABC News: David Frearson )

Mr Corcoran said psychiatrists were still under enormous pressure to discharge patients.

"There is always pressure on beds, pressure on emergency departments and that flow through to mental health units," he said.

"A number of them do feel the pressure on, it's a very difficult decision to make … and be absolutely sure people are ready for discharge and so their diligence and their due diligence in doing that assessment is absolutely critical."

Mental health services in Adelaide's south have been under scrutiny for more than a decade.

In July last year, the Nursing and Midwifery Federation introduced work bans citing a workload crisis for mental health nurses and staff in the southern area.

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Those bans are no longer in place, but the federation's Elizabeth Dabars said it had been a long process to see any improvement in the sector.

An Australian Institute Health Welfare report last year also found South Australian hospitals had some of the longest wait times in Australia for mental health patients in emergency departments.

In a statement, the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist confirmed Dr Norrie was carrying out the review into clinical care and discharge in Adelaide's south after concerns had been raised to the chief psychiatrist.

It would not comment on the details of the review while it was underway.