Y3K - 3 Young People Are Committing Suicide Every Week But Who Cares!

If they were being murdered we would all join Garth McVicar In marching the streets.

I'll tell you who cares. Those distraught family and friends of the 158 under 25year olds (one in the 5-9 year band) who committed suicide in the last coroner’s report and the hundreds every year before. Every single one is a personal tragedy….especially for the loved ones of those who never saw it coming or even worse for those who did and went everywhere for help but found none. They care! They are heartbroken and they hurt like hell!

When in the 80s and 90s we soared to a gold medal in youth suicide, the Youth Suicide Awareness Trust railed against the conspiracy of silence and the Hon Deborah Morris responded with a National Suicide Prevention Strategy. The Hon Jim Anderton kept that strategy alive.

For the last few years Chief Coroner Judge Neil Maclean has been urging us to “gently bring suicide out of the shadows". Every year the judge has been applauded, yet those in positions of power have failed dismally to treat the issue as a matter of national urgency. Instead, it has been left to a few committed volunteers to try and make a difference.

Judge Maclean has been warning about the concerning upward trend and now we are back at 3 young people a week killing themselves. We don’t need to pour more millions into research. As in the late 80s and early 90s, unemployment and imprisonment are some of the indicators that tell the dire story of the social fabric of our society

Everything that happens in a civilised society happens on the watch of its citizens. We might not be directly responsible, but 3 young people a week are once again dying on our watch. For young males it is heading to double that of Australia and for our young females it is 3 times. The hospitalisation rates (or more correctly “crying for hope rates”) are even far worse.

Of course the causes of youth suicide are complex. While factors such as relationship breakdowns, unemployment, alcohol-and-drug dependence and bullying are present in some cases, there are others where finding a single motivating factor is much harder. None of us have a monopoly on the solutions.

The proposed legislation on cyber bullying is definitely a step in the right direction, but one thing remains clear - 3 YOUTHS SUICIDING A WEEK IS shameful! It is time for National Action. We need to:
1) Re-establish a National Co-ordinator
2) Develop a National Mentoring program that builds on the many existing ones.
3) Eliminate youth unemployment – assist young people to fulfilling their potential.
4) Provide on-going support for the Prime Minister’s investment in youth mental health
5) Greater Support those who have suffered the pain that they will never “get over” but will have to learn to live with.

We can continue to put bandages over this festering wound and hope no one will kick up too much fuss or dismiss some of the volunteers as zealots and “do-gooders”. In the meantime, our young people continue to die on our watch. It is an Indictment on us all.

Gregory Fortuin - Founding Chair of the Youth suicide Awareness Trust

ENDS

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