Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tomorrow, Tuesday 10 September, is World Suicide Prevention Day. World Suicide Prevention Day is organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. This year, the aim of World Suicide Prevention Day is to get people talking about suicide and to 'shine a light on suicide prevention'. So let's talk about suicide, and let's talk about prevention.

Intentional self-harming and suicide affect all demographics of our community. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released last year tells us that in 2017, 3,128 people in Australia died from self-harm. This was an increase of 9.1 per cent from 2016. That is 8.57 deaths by suicide every day. The rate of suicide in Australia isn't going down, either. Over the 10 years from 2008 to 2017, the standardised death rates from suicide increased from 10.9 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2008 to 12.6 in 2017. Every state and territory saw an increase over this period. The rate of suicide for males remains higher than for females; in fact, men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women. In 2017, there were 19.1 male deaths by suicide per 100,000 people, compared to 6.2 deaths for females.

We also know that suicide significantly affects younger people. Over one-third of all deaths of males aged 15 to 19 years were by suicide. Young adults who take their lives are also more likely to have accompanying drug and alcohol use disorders. Particular communities are also more prone to suicidal ideation. We know that members of the LGBTIQA+ community have a disproportionately high risk of mental ill-health and suicidal behaviour. People in rural and remote communities are also more susceptible to self-harm and suicide, where access to effective services and healthcare professionals remains a challenge. The rate of suicide in rural and regional areas is about 40 times higher than in major cities and almost twice the rate in remote areas. In 2016, 47 per cent of all suicides occurred outside of capital city regions.

The recent Senate community affairs committee inquiry into regional and remote mental health services heard about the complexities around providing adequate services to these communities and the significant consequences when help is not readily available. The committee heard from the Black Dog Institute, ReachOut, Beyond Blue and headspace, all of whom have developed a range of electronic mental health materials in an effort to equip regional communities with resources to tackle mental ill-health and suicidal ideation. Whilst innovations in this space will continue to assist rural and regional communities, they cannot ever fully replace face-to-face mental health support services and suicide prevention programs.

The high rate of suicide in remote and regional areas is also closely linked to the greater proportion of First Nations peoples and communities in these regions. First Nations peoples are increasingly over-represented in suicide statistics. In 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a rate of suicide approximately twice that of non-Indigenous people. Within the first three months of 2019, there were 35 known suicides by Aboriginal people. This included five young Aboriginal girls aged between 12 and 15 who took their own lives earlier this year. This really is our nation's great shame. In response to these cases, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, NACCHO, and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists have called on the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders to declare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth suicide an urgent national health priority. Just last week, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard reiterated the urgent need for action, noting that the rising rate of suicide amongst First Nations peoples is one of the greatest challenges of our time, requiring profound reform.

This is a national crisis and we have to do more to support the development of culturally safe early prevention and support programs. Further to this, it is important to understand the underlying problems associated with First Nations suicide. The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation explained that the historical and contemporary colonisation practices, including forced removal from land and forced removal of children from families, have led to continuing intergenerational trauma and disempowerment. These traumas continue to contribute to the increased rate of suicide and self-harm amongst First Nations peoples.

This is why it is absolutely essential that these communities have access to health professionals who have a deep understanding of the ongoing effects of colonisation. These communities also need specialists who can bring long-term relationships and bridge trust deficiencies. They also need specialists who are local people and have expertise in the area. I'd like to mention the work of Dr Tracy Westerman as an example of the excellent work being done by Aboriginal practitioners. Dr Westerman does fantastic work through her scholarship program for First Nations psychologists.

First Nations communities must also be provided with the support they need to develop their own culturally safe action plans. A range of community driven action plans to assist in the prevention of suicide have been rolled out across the Kimberley region of WA. NACCHO explains that these programs are centred on people working and walking together on country, with a focus on healing and sharing of cultural knowledge and traditions and with close engagement with elders. NACCHO have called on the government to provide secure and long-term funding to enable Aboriginal community controlled health services to develop and deliver similar preventive programs across Australia.

Across all sections of our society, the development of suicide prevention programs is critical. Research modelling by the Black Dog Institute has shown that preventive programs have the potential to prevent 21 per cent of deaths by suicide and 30 per cent of suicide attempts. But we need programs that are effective for their target group, whether it be specific age groups, cultures or communities. We also know that one of the highest risk factors to future suicide attempts is a past attempt. The government have committed to rolling out The Way Back support program with Beyond Blue to support people who have recently been admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt. The Victorian state government is also currently trialling the Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement, HOPE, initiative, which provides intensive person-centred support for leaving an emergency department or medical ward following treatment for an attempted suicide. The program has supported more than 800 people so far and is being expanded across the state.

The Australian Greens support Mental Health Australia's call to further increase Commonwealth funding for such community based assertive outreach programs, as these are a proven method of reducing further suicide attempts. Funding needs to be increased for prevention and early intervention programs and to create a more accessible and person-centred mental health system.

But we need to go further in our thinking. The recently released report titled Psychosocial risk factors as they relate to coroner-referred deaths in Australia identified problems in relationships and economic circumstances as key factors when it came to suicidality. This means that we have to start looking at suicide as more than a mental health issue. The statistics show us that suicide is getting worse in Australia, and so we must keep shining a light on this issue. In fact, it needs to be a very big spotlight. Our role as parliamentarians is to ensure that we're looking after all Australians, particularly our most vulnerable. This is a confronting issue but we must not back down. I urge the government to do more to combat the rising rate of suicide in our communities. In the words of Nieves Murray, CEO of Suicide Prevention Australia: 'We believe that through collaborative effort and shared purpose we can achieve our shared vision of a world without suicide.'

I urge anybody who is listening to this that needs some support tonight to make sure they contact one of our many excellent help services and helplines to seek those support services.