Isla Marschke’s mother speaks out on mental health failures, calls for urgent reform

When Isla Marschke died at 14 she had already been turned away from 21 psychology practices in regional Queensland.

Christie Jacobsen with her daughter, Isla Marschke.

Christie Jacobsen is speaking publicly for the first time about the immense difficulties she faced trying to get mental health support for her 14-year-old daughter Isla Marschke.

It has been just 9 months since her beautiful teen died by suicide and she says urgent reform is needed.

Despite engaging with organisations and schools at the time of her daughters death she said she was yet to have meaningful discussions with decision-makers.

“I haven’t yet had the kind of structured, deliberate conversation I think is needed—where people in positions of influence truly sit down and listen to families like mine,” Ms Jacobsen said.

While she welcomes the banning of social media for children under 16 and said it was a well-intentioned idea she stressed the issue was far more complex than age restrictions alone.

“It’s not just about age—it’s about maturity, supervision, digital literacy, emotional support, and the enormous challenge of actually policing it,” she said.

“Maybe it is time for a radical rethink.”

Ms Jacobsensaid Isla was not a teen addicted to social media; rather, she was active, creative, and often deleted social apps herself.

Still her daughter faced harmful online interactions that caused her distress.

“She was very open with me and would come to me if she felt harassed online.”

“She didn’t suffer prolonged social media attacks frequently, she was still exposed to harm.”

Ms Jacobsen acknowledges better online protections might have helped her daughter but cautioned against oversimplifying the causes of her daughter’s death

“If there had been more meaningful protections—like stricter age verification, easier reporting, or faster intervention—perhaps Isla wouldn’t have felt so exposed or alone online.

“But I also recognise that her death was the result of many complex and overlapping factors.”

The mother of 14-year-old Isla Marschke, who was the target of social media bullying, says she does not blame anyone for her daughter’s death.

She said bullying online can be subtle and constant, not always obvious to parents.

“It’s often exclusion, silent, private messages, subtle digs, a song with purposeful lyrics, or group dynamics that play out publicly,” Ms Jacobsen said.

“Kids don’t just ‘log off’ from bullying, they carry it into every corner of their lives and it’s invisible, so parents aren’t even aware that it’s happening even as you sit beside your child.”

She is however critical of social media platforms’ failure to adequately protect young users claiming the tools that exist are often hard to find, ineffective, or too slow to respond.
“And they rely on the child being resilient enough to report in the first place, which many aren’t... If the offenders are cautioned, they then make fake or duplicate accounts and start again.”
“It has no end and it feels hopeless to stop when you are on the receiving end.”

Isla Marschke

While Isla was bullied on social media her mother says the heart of the issue was a broken mental health care system, the brutal reality in regional Queensland.

“At the most critical time in Isla’s life, I was turned away from over 21 practices,” she said.
“Most weren’t taking new clients, and many didn’t treat children—especially those under 16.”
She said only four psychologists ever saw Isla.
Of those one stopped practising without notice, another was only interim, one was a travelling locum who she said lacked professionalism, and the fourth was semi-retired.

They only aw Isla after she broke down crying to the office manager.

Financial barriers in regional Queensland also compound the problem for grieving families.

Christie her children Ava, 17, and Rafe, 20, remember Isla Marschke. Picutre: Paul Beutel

The family were entitled to 10 subsidised sessions per year through a Medicare Mental Health Plan.

She also detailed the failures of the triage system.

“It took almost 3 years to finally receive official diagnosis for Isla’s conditions... Isla was placed as a non-urgent case on the public hospital pediatrician list, even though she had already begun harming herself. When her case was finally upgraded—promising care within 30 days—she was still not seen. “

The only reason we got an appointment was because she reached a crisis point, and a counsellor-friend who knew someone in the children’s mental health unit made a personal call. That’s not a system - that’s a favour.”

Ms Jacobsen said the coldness and rejection felt when trying to access services for Isla was heartbreaking.

“The 22nd had a vacancy and initially accepted Isla’s referral—then emailed to say, ‘After reviewing this, we’ve decided to return it.’ That kind of coldness is what families are met with.”

Her message to government is urgent: Queensland needs urgent reform.

“That means growing the mental health workforce, funded postgraduate positions, financial support for students, better training infrastructure in universities—and ensuring that young people, especially in regional areas, actually have access to care.”

Isla Marschke.

“In the end, Isla was growing weary of trying to find and connect with someone who could help her... But I know, deep in my heart, that this failed system added yet another layer of frustration and sadness to a sweet child who already had enough to shoulder.”

This ongoing mental health crisis is reflected in other families in regional Queensland, most recently where a local foster family shared their ordeal with their son, who has schizophrenia and addiction.
Only after he went missing was he finally taken seriously by health services.
You can read the story here