Kota Kinabalu: A consultant psychiatrist told the Coroner's Court that understanding the background of Zara Qairina Mahathir's parents, including their relationship before her birth and their roles as caregivers, was an essential part of assessing her mental state before her death.
Dr Wong Haw Huo said child and adolescent psychiatric assessments require experts to examine a child's developmental history from before birth through adolescence through structured interviews and Mental State Examinations rather than relying on a standardised checklist of questions.
He said interviewing parents about their background, and caregiving was a mandatory part of the assessment to understand attachment, emotional support, family dynamics and the reliability of collateral information provided about the child.
Wong also told the court that observations recorded during Zara's father's interview, including his punctuality, formed part of the Mental State Examination to assess the consistency and reliability of the information he provided, and were not intended to link his mental state to Zara's.
He further clarified that the report's references to "clinical impressions" were observations made during the interview and did not amount to a formal psychiatric diagnosis of Zara's father, while the inquest continues in August.
