Australia’s First National Database On Indigenous Youth Mental Health & Suicide Behaviours Reveals Significant Risk

Aboriginal youth are at an alarmingly high risk of suicide and poor mental health, according to groundbreaking new research which highlights an urgent need to improve access to clinically and culturally appropriate mental health services to improve outcomes for young Aboriginal Australians.

In the first-ever comprehensive dataset on Aboriginal youth mental health in Australia, the national study by Dr Tracy Westerman AM and The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health (Jilya) reveals 42% of participants had thoughts of suicide.

Concerningly, of the 1226 Aboriginal youth who presented to mental health services between 2007 and 2022, one-quarter had attempted suicide one or more times with 1 in 23 reporting that they were highly likely to attempt suicide again and had a plan and method to do so.

The research – published by Australian Psychologist – further suggests suicidal ideation and behaviour are significantly higher among Aboriginal youth who know someone close to them who has died by suicide, which puts vulnerable communities at higher risk.

It comes as suicide rates among Aboriginal youth have climbed to an average of four times that of non-Indigenous children – compounded by high incarceration rates and over-representation in out-of-home care.

Dr Westerman, who has personally funded the mental health screening tools used to capture this first ever data, without government support for over 26 years, said the dataset filled a critical knowledge gap to better support early intervention and prevention.

“The rate of suicide among Aboriginal children remains unacceptably high. This is not a statistic but a pressing issue that demands immediate attention,” said Dr Westerman, founder and Executive Chair of Jilya.

“Mental illness has long been established as a causal factor to the escalating incidence of suicides, but this data is showing us that risk indicators markedly differ for Aboriginal youth, which is vital knowledge to have. The absence of national mental health data has significantly hindered any capacity for early intervention, prevention, and, ultimately, for addressing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth suicides which is at four times greater.

“The failure of governments to take this basic action to close this gap for Aboriginal youth is unacceptable and disgraceful. If data like this came out from a non-Indigenous child population, there would be alarm bells ringing throughout this entire country.”

The study was conducted utilising Australia’s first clinically and culturally informed screening tools, developed and personally funded by Dr Westerman in 2003, which alongside her comprehensive training programs have led to the accreditation of over 50,000 practitioners with profound impact for the sector; limited by the absence of government support for her work.

With recent financial backing from the Paul Ramsay Foundation into Jilya, Dr Westerman said this pioneering work is now finally able to be expanded “so that this data can be captured in real time for the first time across Australia to ensure we can address risk as it occurs”.

"Its not possible to close a gap if you aren’t properly measuring it. The absence of vital data on mental health and suicide behaviours means, despite distressing statistics of child removals, incarcerations, and child suicides, the core causal drivers have remained undefined,” Dr Westerman said.

“We can now identify where the most vulnerable individuals and communities are that require more urgent responses, allocate funds and resources based on specific risk indicators established for the first time by our research, and, most significantly, we can start to collect robust data that shows the effectiveness of strategies aimed at reducing child removals, incarcerations, and child suicides.”

The recent digitising of these screening tools has further removed access barriers by enabling practitioners to screen at-risk Aboriginal youth and adults via digital devices.

“This technological advancement signifies the prospect of obtaining real-time data for the first time concerning the mental health, suicide behaviours, and cultural resilience of Aboriginal individuals,” Dr Westerman said.

Jilya is a registered charity that receives no federal government funding and relies on donations and partnerships for its critical work. To donate, visit https://www.thejilyainstitute.com.au/donate/

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