Suicide Prevention

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:50): Today, I would like to talk very briefly about what I think is a national tragedy in Australia, that is, the rate of suicide and, in particular, the rate of suicide amongst men. However, before I go on to that particular topic I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the South Australian Italian Association, which held its first charity ball in many years on Saturday night. All proceeds from the ball were donated to the Central Domestic Violence Service, generally to support work undertaken by domestic violence people in this state.

Dr Phillip Donato, the president of the association, and his committee did a wonderful job in running the event, which was attended by, amongst others, minister Bettison, His Grace the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, the Leader of the Opposition and myself. It was great to see the issue of domestic violence in the consciousness of other communities in our state.

Getting back to the major issue I want to raise today, in late September this year the ABS released its data on suicides for 2015. I am sad to say that suicide is again the leading cause of death of Australians aged 15 to 44. That clearly demonstrates that a greater national effort on suicide prevention is needed. The report released by the ABS shows that 3,027 Australians died by suicide in 2015. That represents an increase of 5.4 per cent from the previous reported figure of 2,864 in 2014.

Also of great concern is the fact that 80 per cent of people who suicide are, unfortunately, men. Quite disproportionately, men commit suicide more often than women. When you actually track some of this data, it is interesting that men who were depressed adolescents in the 1990s, when we had a surge in youth suicides—and obviously we have put quite a lot of resources into addressing that issue—have carried their suicidality with them into middle age, leading to the highest suicide rate in 13 years for that group aged 40 to 44.

Suicide is the leading cause of premature mortality in Australia, but rates have been particularly stark in men, again aged 40 to 44 years, with 18.3 per cent of male deaths in this age group attributable to suicide. In November 2015, the federal government, as part of its response to the National Mental Health Commission Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services, announced a renewed approach to suicide prevention through the establishment of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

The strategy incorporates a whole range of things. Like most national strategies at the federal level, it all sounds very good, but what I think is lacking is a greater understanding of what the causes of suicide are in our community, particularly amongst men. If you do not understand what the cause of suicide is, it is very hard to deal with it. However, the strategy has some very worthwhile endeavours in terms of suicide prevention, including a decentralised model of having prevention at the local level through the local health networks.

To deal with suicide prevention, research tends to show that suicide and suicidal behaviour arise from very complex social, situational, biological and other individual causes, which isolate people and also, importantly, erode their sense of hope or their sense that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We need to understand those things, and particularly how they impact on men, so we need to invest in research if we are going to truly tackle this issue.

Some factors which correlate with suicide in men are, clearly, men who experience depression have a higher rate of suicide; men who experience relationship breakdowns are at high risk of suicide; obviously, for people who have attempted suicide at any stage there is a strong predictor for future suicide endeavours; matters related to alcohol and drug abuse are also correlated; importantly, unemployment is a very major significant factor in male suicide, particularly amongst men in rural areas; and men in particular industries, like construction. It is the financial factors in these communities, in these sectors, which often are not well understood.