House debates

Thursday, 19 October 2017

Adjournment

Mental Health

4:40 pm

Photo of Madeleine KingMadeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has once again confirmed suicide as a leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44. Last year there was an average of eight deaths by suicide every day in Australia, and in Western Australia there were 371 deaths by suicide in 2016. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are approximately twice as likely to die by suicide as non-Indigenous Australians, with those in the 15- to 17-year-old age group having a suicide rate more than five times higher than their non-Indigenous peers. Veterans of our defence forces are also vulnerable, with research showing that young ex-servicemen aged between 18 and 24 are twice as likely to die by suicide as men of the same age range in the general population. This is very relevant in Brand, as we are home to a high number of service personnel and veterans across the communities of Rockingham and Kwinana.

These figures are horrifying and show the need to have strategies to deal with this devastating reality. One death by suicide is too many. Work needs to be done on preventing these tragedies—on helping people who feel they have no other option than to take their own life. We must get on with the job of ensuring that healthcare professionals in this area are supported properly so they are best able to deal with this devastating reality. We need to work with the community on ways to turn these figures around. Inaction on suicide prevention leads to loss of life.

Labor's policy of establishing suicide prevention trial sites across Australia supports the National Mental Health Commission's recommendation of the nationwide introduction of a whole-of-community approach to suicide prevention. The government has adopted Labor's policy of implementing suicide prevention projects around the country, and this is a positive step for the community. One of these, the Perth South suicide prevention trial site, is in my electorate of Brand. However, there have been delays rolling out the project in Rockingham and Kwinana, with little information available to the community about when it can expect the trial to get underway. There is also very little information about what the trial will mean for the local area and how it will expand services or introduce new ones. We simply don't know. At the moment, sadly, it looks like this initiative is made up of only a government media release, but I am an optimist and I am convinced the community itself will drive this important suicide prevention project in the absence of government leadership.

I'm hopeful that once this project is up and running it will make a difference to my community. There are many dedicated and hardworking mental health service providers in the Perth South region, and I was fortunate enough to meet with some of them recently. With the shadow assistant minister for mental health, Senator Deborah O'Neill, I heard from these engaged community workers at a meeting we held in my electorate. We met with representatives from headspace, South Coastal Women's Health Service, the NDIS, Ruah Community Services, Relationships Australia and Community First. Each and every one of the stakeholders attending gave a different perspective on the realities they face as they work with people in distress. What became apparent from hearing people speak was the need for the Perth South suicide prevention program to get up and running as soon as possible.

Mental health is no longer the absolute taboo subject it once was. We're getting better at talking about it. We now ask each other, 'Are you okay?' and we let our young people know that headspace is a dedicated youth mental health service there to support them. But, sadly, it is still not enough and suicide continues to affect far too many people in our communities. Of great concern is the impact suicide has on a person's loved ones, as they have to deal with the tragic and unexpected—and what might have been preventable—death. Families, friends and workmates have to come to terms with the loss, with the trauma and with their grief. They too need the support of mental health workers who do so much with the resources they are given.

By investing in suicide prevention programs we are taking a strategic course of action that mitigates the need for other support services, and this is a good plan. The government has committed to 12 suicide prevention trial sites to be rolled out. Three are in WA. Each site will receive $3 million for better resources. But allocating money is of no use if projects are not being delivered properly. I'm hopeful that the delays that are holding up the implementation of these projects at their trial sites in the community will be dealt with so that work can begin as soon as possible to assist those people in need. And to the community groups I met recently in my office in Kent Street in Rockingham, I say, thank you for your dedicated commitment to our community and to the young people in distress who are thinking of suicide. I want to let you know that I'll be there to help you get this suicide prevention trial site off the ground.