Statistics on suicide must be considered with the caveat of the difficulty in tabulating and confirming data but by any measure the latest release from the ABS on cause of death indicates we have a serious problem on our hands and it is getting worse.
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The data for 2015 indicated that 3027 people died by suicide, the first time the numbers have reached more than 3000 and the worst in 10 years. It equals eight people per day across Australia.
How this specifically relates to Warrnambool, the figures do not reveal. But we know anecdotally just how many families these terrible statistics contain.
The south-west feels the impact of suicide and mental health every day and a harrowing message from Warrnambool’s Seamus Blake within a farewell note, written before he took his own life, shares a stark reality. “If you’ve got any issues like I had, please don’t leave it too late,” he wrote to friends and family, who later spoke to The Standard about about the struggles of moving forward with their lives – without Seamus.
Suicide may be just under two per cent of deaths but this figure becomes alarming when looked at in certain subgroups. In 2015, suicide accounted for one-third of deaths among people aged from 15 to 24 years of age, and over a quarter of deaths among those 25 to 34 years of age.
These figures may be distorted by fewer deaths in a young and relatively healthy age group but given every one of these cases is a life of potential cut short we begin to sense the magnitude of the issue. There is the more worrying possibility that these figures are actually under-representative due to many inconclusive and problematic cases; family taboos, unclear intentions and the troubling spectrum of mental health issues.
Not for the first time has it been observed a death toll this high would be called a national crisis if it could be attributed to a particular disease or something high on the public agenda like the road toll.
Everyone can have a role in curbing this terrible drain on human potential. Leaders must place a higher imperative on the need for better resourced mental health services and prevention support. But education resources and even the most basic human level of conversation can assist.
These statistics are a starting point. The Standard maintains this is an old taboo we can no longer afford not to talk about.
- If you, or someone you know, needs help phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.