Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the report by the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing entitled Before it’s too late: report on early intervention programs aimed at preventing youth suicide. I will begin today by highlighting the importance of youth suicide prevention. In 2009, suicide was the leading cause of death for young people aged between 15 and 24, with 259 deaths. It continues to be the number one cause of death within the 15- to 24-year-old age group. Those at risk are often victims of bullying, including cyberbullying, harassment and discrimination. They can be made to feel worthless because they are socially isolated, are homeless or suffer mental illness like depression or anxiety. Developing a better understanding of why young people give in to suicidal tendencies will almost certainly help reduce the rate at which young people commit suicide.

Input from young people and community organisations has resulted in the key recommendations in the committee's report, which include approaches to reduce the rate of youth suicide, including research and evaluation to inform best practice strategies; collaboration; increasing mental health literacy; and gatekeeper training. There is no simple solution to the prevention of youth suicide, but one of the contributors to the report warns that a lack of action is only going to exacerbate the issue.

The Australian Psychological Society stated that it is in support of the committee's policy proposal. However, it suggests that intervention should be evidence based and it stresses the importance of tailored services, as there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all model. The APS suggests that those most well-equipped to intervene with young people at risk are qualified professionals, like psychologists, and that education and training for parents and carers, and for young people themselves, needs to be sustained by multiple sources. The APS also says that the problems or causes that lead to a young person taking their life need to be discovered and tackled head-on. Suggestions from the APS for an improved policy for preventing youth suicide include increasing frontline services, providing support for affected communities, targeting those who are at greatest risk, promoting mental health and wellbeing and creating additional 'headspace' and early psychosis prevention and intervention centres. Headspace was established with $69 million over five years by the Howard government in 2005 for the youth mental health initiative, and is an independent charitable foundation. It provides mental health and wellbeing support, information and services to young people between 12 and 25 years of age and their families. Headspace was established and funded by the coalition in 2006 across 30 sites around the country. The coalition's Real Action Plan for Better Mental Health included the provision of additional headspace sites throughout metropolitan, rural and regional areas.

The APS also highlighted a need for appropriate training for people who have regular contact with young people. At present, many professionals working with young people, the front-line staff and health professionals, will have completed the relevant course in mental first aid. The course is also available to others, including community staff, parents, carers and peers who are interested in completing the training. The APS has indicated that the key emphasis of this training is to take the information to the larger target audience rather than rely on traditional information-seeking behaviour. Therefore, the APS suggests distributing information about mental health issues in school newsletters and running information sessions at schools, community centres and local leisure centres.

Specifically, the role of schools and teachers is important in managing the impact of suicide on young people. A key secondary schools program is the MindMatters initiative, delivered by Principals Australia. This is a national mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention program delivered in 3,000 Australian secondary schools, including Elanora high school within the electorate of McPherson. MindMatters is working with high schools to embed promotion, prevention and early intervention activities for mental health and wellbeing and has been established since 2000. I believe programs like MindMatters, along with appropriate communication networks, are essential for the prevention of youth suicide.

In addition to being able to access relevant information, two-way methods of communication also need to be made readily available. Most of the time, those at risk of suicide need someone to talk to about the reasons they feel helpless. I would like to recognise the efforts of the Kids Helpline in providing a service to meet these young people's needs.

Kids Helpline is Australia's only national 24/7 confidential support and counselling service specifically for children and young people aged five to 25 years. It was only in 2003 that the helpline extended the target client age to 25 as an acknowledgement that people in that age group still struggle with the challenges of maturation.

The helpline has a referral database of more than 8,000 services, such as suicide prevention. Despite national data suggesting that the rate of youth suicide is on the decline, Kids Helpline is seeing an increase in the numbers of contacts from young people about suicide related issues. The organisation made a submission to the inquiry setting out a total of 11 recommendations. The submission provides information based on their work with young people and, in particular, the rate of suicidal thinking among young Australians and the types of programs that can both prevent suicide and reduce the rate at which acute distress turns into suicidal thoughts.

One of the recommendations was to ensure there is adequate public telephone coverage across Australia, particularly in rural and remote areas. Kids Helpline believes that ensuring free access to telephone services for all young people is essential in establishing contact with specialists who can help with youth issues and concerns. In 2009, one in five counselling sessions at the Kids Helpline were with a young person presenting with either a suicide related issue or self-harming behaviour, highlighting the need for our youth to be able to access pay phones not only for counselling purposes but also for their general safety and wellbeing. In addition to telecommunications, Kids Helpline has found that young people today prefer the anonymity of the online medium. During the last two years the rate of contact where current thoughts of suicide were expressed through the online medium was 33 per cent. The kidshelp.com.au website allows the opportunity to gather information and provides a two-way communication model through the 'Tell us your story' link, encouraging young people to share their experiences and the ways in which they overcame their problems. The organisation stresses the website is an example of an e-health initiative that can reduce the social isolation of children and young people through the power of modern information and communication technology.

Those who are seeking contact are mostly female, with males making up only 14 per cent of those contacting these services. This shows that young males are more likely to keep to themselves instead of reaching out. This is certainly of concern and should be of concern to us in the community. While thoughts of suicide remain higher with women, men are more likely to commit suicide, at a rate of four to one. This highlights the need to increase research into how we can engage with males to ensure that they are getting the help that they need.

It is relevant to note at this point that in submissions to the Standing Committee on Education and Employment's mental health and workforce participation inquiry, Dr Barnes from the Black Dog Institute said:

Depression has been described as a silent epidemic and you have properly heard lots of stats about that. However, we think it is worth repeating that one in five Australians will experience some type of mental illness in a year and the most common is depression and anxiety.

She then went on to say:

… mood disorders are a serious illness, potentially a fatal illness. We have some really shocking stats for Australian suicide rates. We know that around 40 people a week are killing themselves and, of those, around 30 are men. Obviously, every person, every individual is actually leaving a bereaved family member, co-worker and friends and the community, which then impacts on their mental health and then the ripples just sort of continue.

I would like to conclude on the issue of youth suicide today by highlighting the importance of continued support for mental health.

The coalition has a strong track record of taking mental health care seriously and providing the necessary funding to provide services to those suffering a mental disorder. In 2006 the former coalition government made the single biggest investment in mental health by any government in Australian history with $1.9 billion being committed over a five-year period for services for people with mental illness, their families and their carers. A commitment to mental health needs to be upheld, and I would hope that this would include support of early intervention programs aimed at reducing the rate of youth suicide, as these lives are certainly worth saving.

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