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A campaign to halve the south-west’s suicide rate by 2023 is gathering momentum with a forum told town-specific programs were needed.
More than 50 residents interested in reducing and preventing suicide attended the Fight for Your Life forum in Warrnambool on Tuesday.
It built on a November forum for service providers, kick-starting an overall suicide prevention strategy.
Lifeline South West chief executive Meredith Ericson said a blanket approach was not the answer.
“We don’t want to end up with a Warrnambool-centric program. We want it to be across the region,” she said.
She said at the time of developing the campaign, there were 14 suicide deaths in the Great South Coast annually. The highest proportion of suicides in 2009-14 was men aged 35- 64.
She said local data was needed to understand the needs of people bereaved or impacted by suicide and people who were thinking of taking their own life.
“The more information and understanding we have the better the work that we can do,” Ms Ericson said.
South West Primary Care Partnership executive officer Mark Brennan said raising awareness was vital.
“The reason people don’t know where the services are is because they aren’t willing to talk about it,” he said. “We’re hearing the people who do access services have a huge burden taken off their shoulders when they do talk.”
Headspace regional manager Anne Waters said more had to be done but the forum had been valuable.
“It was a really good advancement and it was good to see the community interest in tackling this complex issue in our region.”
- If you or someone you know needs help, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.