6 Australians take their lives by suicide every day
65,000 attempted suicides each year
1 suicide every 4 hours
1 attempted suicide every 8 minutes
It is a tragic thing when someone takes their own life. To feel so desperate inside that they opted for total oblivion as the only way out is not how a life should end.
Our community, society and government is sorely lacking in providing both the help and positive constructive attitude that is needed towards mental health issues.
It is not only the loss of a life that is the tragedy here, but also the ongoing affect it has on the lives of those loved ones and friends who have been left behind. These often include young people.
The stigma still associated with suicide and mental health means that many people suffer in silence, unable to talk about the grief and trauma they are facing as they come to terms with their loss.
The many demands on our youth today means that some young people are now affected by mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, this can lead them to a inconsolable state of mind where suicide seems the only way to release their pain.
Young people can feel isolated and alone, more funding and a change in the community’s attitudes to mental illness is needed if these teenagers are to access the help they so desperately need.
Suicide is a leading cause of death among young people, second only to car accidents. In rural areas twice as many young males commit suicide as their city dwelling counterparts.
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, psychologist and Generation Next speaker says parents should trust their instincts if they feel their teenager is showing signs of depression but has no explanation for the cause of their behaviour. He suggests they should seek professional help immediately.
Young people may have feelings of hopelessness because of relationship break-ups, family problems, sexual, physical or mental abuse, drug or alcohol problems, mental illness (including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia), major loss and grief such as a death, and any serious problem that is difficult to solve and won’t go away.
In compiling the recently published report The Hidden Toll: Suicide in Australia, the Senate inquiry committee heard 248 submissions from people left devastated by the suicide of someone close. In many cases they did not get the support and care that their grief warranted.
Organisations such as Beyondblue, Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Australia are all working to change the perception of mental illness within the community.
The Hidden Toll: Suicide in Australia recommendations:
- A 5 year media campaign to de-stigmatise suicide in the community as a whole
- Compulsory training for police, paramedics and emergency hospital staff
- Improved date collection
- relaxing guidelines on media reporting of suicide
- establishing protocols for follow-up support of people in hospital after attempting suicide
- considering short-term accommodation centres for people discharged from hospital after a suicide attempt, and
- providing affordable help lines accessible via mobile phones.
Mr Michael Dudley, chairman of Suicide Prevention Australia said “there is a crying need for the federal government to get serious about mental health funding and suicide prevention,” Dr Dudley said yesterday. ”We are watching and waiting. The question is, for how long?”
”This is not an election issue,” Mr McGlaughlin, chief executive of Suicide Prevention Australia said ”this is a whole of community issue and a matter of life and death.”
For information or help contact the following organisations:
Lifeline on 13 11 14
Beyondblue on 1300 22 4636
Youthbeyondblue on 1300 22 4636
Suicide Prevention Australia on (02) 9568 3111
Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: parliament of Australia, Senate.
I have lost my youngest sister to suicide and had been researching depression and suicide for 10 years before discovering that my sisters suicide was related to a long term sexual relationship from when she was 13 with a man over 20. This was unknown to me but my older sisters were well aware of it. There thoughts were well as long as she’s happy then they can’t see nothing wrong with it. Of course a 13 year old is going to have an elevated self esteem whilst she is slowly losing her true life long term friends and have to hold that secret for ever from the one’s who truly love her. She wasn’t even aware at that age of the laws and how she was being abused. Most depression and suicides are never related to an abuse from the adults that the victims may have had a crush on.
For a further 5 years I have been relating suicide to the Age of Consent where the laws are getting stronger in most developed countries they are laying dormant in Australia and not being educated properly as it relates to so many now and is being justified and excepted by even parents.
As it stands, at the majority and core of the problem, if a minor is 15 years of age and is being seduced and sexually active with an 18 year old, she/he is the victim to a child sex offender. If a minor is 15 years old and offender is 20 and older then he is a pedophile.
Are you also aware that if a suicide victim that dies from a heart related cause then it is registered as just that and not suicide by the lack of correspondence between the Coroners office and the Australian Beauro of Statistics. (Most over doses are heart related). There are so many more suicides that are not registered as suicide and this is why they have stopped doing statistics on them for over 5 years.
My sister took her life at age 23 after a three step period.
1. An elevated self esteem during the relationship.
2. A realization period which went well over the age of consent where she was no longer protected by the laws that were actually oblivious to her originally.
3. A long term spiraling affect which is depression and radical sexual behaviors with same sex and only older adults.
Educate and address the age of consent and you will address most of your problems.
Just look at schoolies week when you are mixing 13-14 year olds with alcohol and trades men who feed them extacy and other sexually motivated drugs.
They blame them selves and have no one to turn too because the older role models know, then they can’t work out why later they are so depressed.