The family of Rachel Hall (34), a mother-of-three from Coultry Road, Ballymun, Dublin 11, have strongly criticised the hospital for discharging the woman, who they say was "extremely suicidal" and in need of fulltime psychiatric care.

The woman's body was discovered on the ground outside her flat complex in the early hours of 21 December 2005. Hall had been discharged from the hospital two days earlier after being admitted just four days previously when garda� had to restrain her from jumping from a balcony at her flat complex.

"We are very unhappy that they released her on that occasion and many other times. We are going to get in touch with a solicitor. Hopefully next time they'll think twice before they send someone home who really needs care, " said her daughter, Kim Hall (18). "She might still be with us if they had given her the care she needed."

Antoinette Hall said her sister had been "crying out for help" but the hospital sent her home in a vulnerable state.

Kim told an inquest into her mother's death at Dublin City Coroner's Court on Friday that within hours of her mother being discharged she attempted to take an overdose of her medication. "I had to take her pills from her and hide them. How could they say she wasn't suicidal? How could they send her home?"

Hall attempted to take her own life "20 to 30" times since 1997 by taking overdoses, slitting her wrists, attempting to drown herself or attempting to set herself alight. "As well as setting fire to herself at home, she tried to do it at St Vincent's.

They had to confiscate her lighter, " according to Kim. "Another time, she snuck out of St Vincent's and tried to drown herself in the canal nearby. The garda� had to bring her back."

In the year leading up to her death, Hall was admitted seven times to the hospital after threatening or attempting suicide. "They'd take her in for a while and then send her home.

They wouldn't even tell us when she was being discharged - they just put her in a taxi home, " said Kim.

A psychiatrist from St Vincent's told the inquest she was discharged as it was not believed she was suicidal.

Dr Jogin Thakore said she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and was depressed but clinicians did not believe she was a suicide risk. It was thought she would benefit more from treatment in the community instead of remaining as an in-patient at the hospital. Earlier in the year, Hall had a three-month stay at the hospital and long admissions were "not fruitful" for patients with borderline personality disorder, he added.

When informed she was to be discharged, Hall asked for a second opinion and another clinician assessed her and agreed that she should be released.

The evening before she committed suicide, the woman's niece called the hospital as she was threatening suicide and was told to bring her back the following day. Family members and neighbours had to calm her down as she threatened to jump from the balcony of the flat complex during the day. Later that night, Kim put her mother to bed but she got up a few hours later and jumped from her seventh-floor balcony after first attempting to hang herself with an electrical flex. "The inquest is over now, but there is no closure. We'll never have closure in our hearts, " Kim added.

No one at St Vincent's Hospital was available for comment over the weekend.