Structured Review Work

Structured review work is the practical process CEA uses to bring order, clarity and discipline to complex matters.

Real Cases Real Families

CEA’s review work begins with real cases and real families. This is why CEA remains trauma-informed in the way material is received, reviewed, organised and handled.

Material is provided by aggrieved loved ones of the deceased through CEA’s secure portal. Families can provide police material, coronial documents, medical information, forensic material, digital records, photographs, messages, timelines, witness information, workplace material, previous correspondence, concerns they raised, and questions that remain unanswered.

Providing Material

Some families provide a large amount of material at the beginning. Others provide information over time as they locate records, obtain documents, remember details, or continue trying to understand what happened. CEA recognises that this process can take months, and in some cases years.

Recognising Barriers

CEA makes allowance for delayed material. Families are often dealing with trauma, grief, exhaustion and the practical difficulty of gathering records from different agencies. Important documents can also be delayed through Right to Information applications, coronial access processes, agency responses, legal correspondence or other formal requests.

Receiving Material with Care

Each matter is reviewed so CEA can understand what has been provided, what requires organisation, what appears time-sensitive, what issues are being raised, and what further material is needed to support a meaningful review.

CEA is supported by its experts and Expert Advisory Committee, who assist in identifying relevant information, clarifying what further material may be needed, and bringing professional insight to the review process.

CEA then places the Inquiry into an appropriate review pathway, taking into account the nature of the concern, the material available, the urgency of any issue, the complexity of the records, and the expertise required. This allows CEA to manage each matter responsibly while treating every family’s information with dignity and care.

Structured review work helps CEA move a matter from scattered information into an organised review framework.

Records are sorted. Chronologies are built. Issues are mapped. Evidence is linked. Gaps are identified. Questions are recorded. Family concerns are placed against the available material.

This process helps CEA ask the core review questions

• What is known?
• What is missing?
• What conflicts?
• What has been assumed?
• Where is the evidence that supports suicide?
• Was that evidence properly tested?
• What requires clarification?
• What does the evidence actually support?
• What issues point beyond one case and into a wider systemic concern?

Comtrac Is Central To This Process

Comtrac acts as the shared review environment where approved contributors can work within the same structured case file. This allows different disciplines to contribute to one matter without the work becoming separated across disconnected documents, emails, folders or individual notes.

A legal student or supervisor can review coronial process. A criminology team can map decision points. A forensic science contributor can consider evidence handling. A digital forensics contributor can review device or data issues. A public health researcher can identify service gaps. Each contribution remains connected to the same chronology, issue map and evidence base.

That is the value of structured review work.

Cohesive Review

Comtrac allows CEA to build one cohesive review, rather than separate opinions sitting beside each other.

Approved universities, academic clinics, supervisors, researchers, experts and senior students can assist CEA with defined parts of this work. This can include chronology building, issue mapping, evidence summaries, document review, family concern mapping, service pathway mapping, forensic or digital topic review, coronial process analysis, and systemic issue identification.

Approved Collaboration

Through CEA-approved collaboration, Comtrac user licences can be made available at no licence cost to the university. These licences are available only through CEA and only for approved CEA structured review work.

CEA can make available the number of approved user licences required for the agreed review team, clinic, supervisor group or project. This gives universities access to a professional case review platform while allowing CEA to maintain control, security and consistency across the work.

Benefits to Universities

Structured review work benefits universities by giving senior students and academic teams practical exposure to complex evidence review, multidisciplinary analysis, ethical decision-making, systems thinking and public interest reform work.

It benefits CEA by strengthening the quality, structure and depth of each review. It also helps identify recurring barriers, failures, patterns and systemic issues across suspected misclassified male suicides.

Our Governance

Privacy, security and dignity are at the heart of what CEA represents. Access to CEA material will be limited to approved users, approved tasks and the agreed scope of work. CEA’s systems are protected by multi-factor authentication, controlled access, role-based permissions and secure internal processes.

Approved structured review work will be governed through confidentiality requirements, supervision arrangements, conflict declarations, privacy safeguards, ethics or governance approval where required, and Trustee and Advisory Committee approval.

Approved review-related research papers and outputs produced through CEA collaboration will be published in Our Publications on the CEA website. Approved university partner logos will also be displayed in Our Partners on the CEA website in recognition of their contribution.

To explore structured review work with CEA, please select Research Collaboration Application in the menu and complete the form.