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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-06-04 Daily Xml
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Suicide Prevention

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins:

That this council—

1. Notes the significant and unfortunate increase in the rates of suicide across the nation;

2. Notes the motions of the member for Adelaide passed in the House of Assembly on 6 April 2011 and the Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins passed in this council on 24 November 2011 respectively;

3. Notes the subsequent development of the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy;

4. Encourages the efforts of all community organisations that are already working hard in this sector to continue their valuable contributions to suicide prevention throughout South Australia; and

5. Urges the government to build on the work of the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist by increasing support for the ongoing establishment of suicide prevention networks in local community.

(Continued from 7 May 2014.)

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (17:17): I rise on behalf of government members in support of the Hon. Mr Dawkins' motion. The government shares a deep concern at the rate of suicide in South Australia with all South Australians. The impact on individuals and the community left behind is devastating.

I wish to acknowledge that page 5 of the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy 2012-2013 under the title of 'In Memory' that 'This strategy is dedicated to the memory of those who have taken their own lives. We acknowledge the struggle, turmoil and hopelessness they experienced.'

The Australian Bureau of Statistics warns us to be cautious in our understanding of the increasing numbers as this is likely to be due to improved reporting. We have known for many years that there has been an underreporting of suicides. The government is committed to the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy 2012-2016: Every life is worth living. The strategy was developed out of extensive consultation involving over 750 South Australians in the process. The strategy calls for a whole of community response to suicide prevention.

The personal circumstances and experiences that lead a person to attempt suicide are very complex and not contained in one government sector. The solutions are indeed diverse. The seven goals within the strategy articulate the elements that emerge as important in preventing suicide in this state. Those seven goals are:

1. To provide a socially inclusive community of resilient individuals and supportive environments.

2. To provide a sustainable, coordinated approach to service delivery, resources and information within communities to prevent suicide.

3. To provide targeted suicide prevention initiatives, activities and programs.

4. To address as a priority the issues that affect regional South Australians.

5. To provide targeted post-intervention activities and programs.

6. To improve the evidence base and understanding of suicide and suicide prevention.

7. To implement standards and continuous practice improvement in suicide prevention.

The decision to take one's life can be within minutes of an attempt and it is important that each one of us knows how to recognise and respond to a call for help. Raising awareness, breaking down the stigma and increasing community education increases the community's ability to respond.

A heightened awareness can be life saving for those contemplating suicide and for those bereaved by suicide. To this end, SA Health, through the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist, is working closely with all stakeholders to establish suicide prevention networks in local council areas. These community development activities start the conversation, as it is in the talking about suicide in day-to-day life that resilient communities will be forged to support individuals and save lives.

The networks bring together a diverse group of individuals from business, community groups, such as church groups, senior citizens, service groups and sporting clubs, industry, agriculture, the non-government sector and the public sector. I understand networks are in varying stages of development in Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge, Clare and Gilbert Valleys, Gawler and Playford, and will soon begin in Naracoorte and Whyalla. Wesley LifeForce facilitated networks are also located in Port Adelaide, Strathalbyn and Port Augusta.

The networks are supported by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and encouraged to share their action plans and activities with fellow networks promoting shared learning and empowerment in their work. The government is committed to this community development work and will be resourcing the development of further networks in South Australia. I commend the motion and I congratulate the Hon. Mr Dawkins for bringing it to the council.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:21): I rise to speak in support of this motion put before us today by the Hon. John Dawkins and I commend him for his ongoing support for raising awareness about suicide prevention and his personal support. As members may be aware, I had a close family member who committed suicide in the past months, so I thank him for 'walking the walk' as well as 'talking the talk'.

I want to draw members' attention to one particular area, however. In the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy, certainly on my search, there was only one mention of refugees and that was with regard to unaccompanied minors and there was only one mention of asylum seekers. Yet I do believe this is a mental health time bomb ticking in our community and indeed a mental health time bomb of our own creation.

Members would be well aware that we have seen cuts to refugee services in this recent federal budget and indeed we have seen cruel and inhumane policies implemented federally and in this state in past decades, in particular with mandatory detention and now with offshore processing. With mandatory detention, we do know that we have created this mental health time bomb for ourselves and certainly there are a lot of implications there for mental health professionals, and mental health professionals are stepping up.

Indeed, medical professionals are stepping up and I was very pleased to meet last week with Tom, a young doctor in training, from the Australian Medical Students' Association. He is certainly a part of those mental health professionals who are stepping up, not only once they become established in their profession but even before they enter the profession. I commend the work of the Australian Medical Students' Association in putting together quite a comprehensive document in terms of alerting members of parliament to the mental health implications and the health implications of our nation's treatment of asylum seekers.

Indeed, I note that mental health professionals in this state—and I will make particular mention of Dr Nicholas Proctor and a paper in Australasian Psychiatry written also by Louise Newman and Michael Dudley—have remarked on the remote facilities that we have had in this state that saw mandatory detention of asylum seekers in Woomera and Baxter in the early 2000s.

The behaviour there included riots, self-harm and suicidal behaviour. It reflected the detainees' distress, frustration and despair at their powerlessness. These are people who have come to our shores seeking asylum, seeking help, people who are fleeing persecution. We know the overwhelming majority of them are founded in those well-founded fears of persecution. We know that by detaining them indefinitely we do not give them a sense of welcome and a sense of hope; we drive them further into despair, and in some cases that despair becomes suicide and self-harm.

We also know that having unaccompanied children, and children in general, in those detention centres puts them at greater risk of witnessing other detainees self-harming, committing suicide or attempting suicide. I worked with Amnesty International in the early 2000s. I heard horrific stories of what was going on in Woomera and Baxter, and I was ashamed to be Australian when I heard those stories. At first I could not actually believe that we were undertaking such cruel and, I believe, disgusting treatment of our fellow human beings who were simply asking for help. There is no greater plea for help than the plea from somebody who is looking at self-harm or suicide, and I think that the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy should be answering those calls for help. With those few words, I commend this motion to the council.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (17:26): I of course speak today in support of the Hon. John Dawkins' motion that refers to the increase in the suicide rate across the nation, notes the South Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy and urges the government to build on the ongoing work that the Chief Psychiatrist's office is doing through suicide prevention networks. Like other members, I would like to acknowledge the very longstanding and passionate commitment the Hon. Mr Dawkins has to the issue of suicide prevention and mental health generally. It is indeed a passion that we both share and that we should all share.

Dignity for Disability, like all members of this chamber, I am sure, acknowledges the ongoing tragedy of suicide in Australian society, and indeed anywhere else for that matter. The damage suicide does to the people it affects—not just the person who commits suicide but their families, friends, workplaces and local communities—is immeasurable. I would also acknowledge the particularly vulnerable groups in our community when it comes to suicide, as supported by statistics.

Firstly, people who identify as non-heterosexual have a much higher attempted suicide rate, and I imagine that this is connected to bullying and lack of social acceptance. Of course, our parliamentary colleague the Hon. Dennis Hood was talking about the effects of bullying just today in this place during his matter of interest speech, as he, like all the rest, acknowledged that this is a serious problem in our schools and workplaces in particular. Bullying about sexuality and appearance is all too common amongst adolescents in both public and private schools, and I personally am aware of several suicides in Adelaide in recent years after young people were bullied, particularly on social media.

Young people, and in particular young men, are overrepresented in suicide statistics. While women are more likely to report depression and anxiety, attempt suicide and express suicidal ideations, unfortunately young men tend to use more permanent or violent methods to suicide and have a higher suicide death rate. Suicide continues to be a leading cause of death in under 45 year olds in this country, particularly in country areas, and this is a great tragedy in itself. It is essential that people, particularly young men, in rural and regional areas are given the support they need to talk about the life challenges they are facing at any time. They need to know that they can access services, whether it be over the phone, online or face to face, from health professionals and helplines.

It is also important at this point that we acknowledge the great frustration that I certainly feel and that members touched by mental illness and related challenges feel; that is, often it is only when somebody is experiencing negative mental health, attempting suicide or experiencing depression and anxiety and all those things that we start to talk about mental health as a community. In fact, mental health is something we all have, just like physical health, and it can be good or bad, or somewhere in between.

It really is time to stop only talking about mental health when it reaches crisis point and talk about it, again, in the same way that we would talk about physical health or any other kind of health, so that we have an ongoing conversation and checks when it comes to mental health to hopefully prevent people from reaching that crisis point in the first place. I would like to touch briefly on the fact that I worry that the foreshadowed changes to costs of visits to GPs is just one example that could cause a spike in suicide attempts and the overall suicide rate, given that in regional Australia GPs are often the only local access people have for help with their mental health.

That is why the sooner we can demonstrate that we support all marriages in Australia the better. Whether it is a man and a woman, a woman and a woman or a man and a man, we should accept it and legislate to make it so. In fact, there can be two people who are non-gender specific identifying or who have changed their gender, as the Hon. Tammy Franks was talking about today. I think we should be legislating to acknowledge this and acknowledge all marriage types and relationships between two consenting people.

Again, one major thing that we can do to help improve mental health is to stop perpetuating the idea that there is one particular standard that people should adhere to. Whether that be to do with gender, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and so on, we need to start acknowledging what has been a fact for many years now in Australia; that is, we are a diverse, multicultural society, and we need to accept all people for what they are, as long as they are bringing positive attributes to our society.

I also note that Lifeline signs with the appropriate phone numbers have been placed on a number of train station platforms around metropolitan Adelaide. Is the mover of the motion aware of this, and does he know about this campaign of Lifeline signs going up at train stations? Perhaps someone on the government side might know about them, too, and could comment. Anyway, I would be interested to know the strategy behind them and what comprehensive services have been put in place to support the campaign, but perhaps that is for another day.

I think it is important to acknowledge that, while it is fantastic to see more awareness of services like Lifeline getting out there, because it is certainly a very valuable service that I myself can vouch for having used the service a number of times, I also know that those services are greatly underfunded and greatly underresourced. It is all well and good to put up a placard giving a number for someone to call if they are feeling a little bit desperate or needing someone to talk to, but we actually need to make sure that there is someone there to answer the phone in a timely manner. The resourcing of those services is just as important, if not more, than spreading the awareness.

On behalf of Dignity for Disability, I support the passing of this motion, but I feel I also need to implore members of this chamber to look at the broader social attitudes and the lack of access to much needed services, especially in more conservative and rural and regional areas, that can lead to suicide attempts and, unfortunately, successful suicide attempts in the first place. This is something that government certainly needs to take the lead on, but it is the responsibility of all of us as members of the South Australian community to help break down the stigma and make sure that supports are available for people experiencing crises, whether that be with a professional or just with an understanding friend. It is the responsibility of all of us to help break down those barriers. With those brief words and for those reasons, I certainly commend this motion very highly to the chamber.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (17:34): Suicide does not discriminate; it can affect any family at any time. I thank very much those members who have spoken to this motion today: the Hon. Mr Gazzola, the Hon. Ms Franks and the Hon. Ms Vincent. They, among many others in the parliament, have been extraordinarily supportive of my work in this area and my passion for doing everything we can to reduce suicide in the community. Each of them particularly demonstrated to the council the broad extent to which suicide is a major issue right across all demographic and geographic areas of this state and beyond, of course.

There are many other people in this chamber, the parliament and the community who have been extraordinarily supportive of me in that work, and I am very grateful for it and I will continue for as long as I feel is needed. I would be grateful one day to come in and say that our efforts have been broadly successful. At the moment, while the community are prepared to talk about these matters far more than they were, I think we all know that the issue is still one that needs an extraordinary community-wide effort, and I thank those who support those efforts as we develop them across the political divide, across all communities.

For those who might be reading this in Hansard, the elements in Nos 4 and 5 of the motion in relation to encouragement for community organisations that are already working hard in the sector and urging the government to build on the work of Office of the Chief Psychiatrist by increasing support for the ongoing establishment of suicide prevention networks, I refer them to the Address in Reply speech I made on 20 May, where I gave significant detail about many of the large number of groups I work with, have worked with and continue to work around South Australia.

Of course, as I said on the day, the danger of listing those groups is that you miss someone. I am very sorry that there was one very important group I missed in that speech, which is called Mates in Construction. I know that my colleagues on the other side who have been involved with unions dealing with the construction industry would be aware of the very good work that that organisation does, both in concert with the unions and with the relevant employer organisations.

I remind the chamber that I am very grateful that the government did develop its suicide prevention strategy as a response to the motion which I moved in this chamber some years ago and which was also moved in the lower house by the member for Adelaide and their successful passage. As I have said, I am sincerely grateful for the development of the strategy and the involvement of some terrific people in that area. I have always commended the strategy, and the strategy and the development of networks was very adequately described by the Hon. Mr Gazzola. But I do say that we need to step up the effort. There is a significant need for extra resources to be given to the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist.

The Hon. Mr Gazzola accurately reflected the networks that have been developed or are in the process of being developed, but there is one public servant doing that work and that lady, and I have mentioned her name before, Lynne James, is a dedicated individual, but she is one person. I do bring that plea to the government.

I also say to the Minister for Mental Health that I think he does need to be more active in this space. The minister is the Minister for Health and Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse. I think there is a cry (and I will not name them) from people on the Labor side as well as all sides in the community for more leadership in this area. I do say to the Minister for Mental Health that I think it is time that he stepped up his efforts in public about suicide.

In conclusion, I will respond to the Hon. Kelly Vincent's question of me in regard to Lifeline. I understand her concern. Lifeline has been around in South Australia for almost 51 years and it is well regarded around Australia as a wonderful organisation that has helped many people over many years, but there is that concern that, if you advertise something and then you cannot cope with the level of calls or people seeking help, is that the right thing to do?

I am very grateful that the government came up with a commitment of funding for Lifeline in Adelaide, late in the state campaign, for the first time. Also, I will put on the record that I think that only happened because the Liberal Party some six or eight months earlier made a commitment to Lifeline across South Australia. At the time, the government said it would not be doing that but it certainly did at the tail end of the campaign. I am not playing politics: I am grateful for the commitment.

I think we are all aware that Lifeline has been advertising on radio, and I think TV, trying to get more community support for their services. I have recently been interstate and met with Lifeline Australia, their peak body and a number of different Lifeline groups, in places such as Melbourne, Albury, Canberra, the harbour-to-Hawkesbury area in Sydney, and also in Wollongong. Some of them are connected significantly to the Uniting Church and others are completely independent. They all raise money in an array, I suppose, of different manners, and we are all aware in South Australia of those Lifeline clothing shops.

Having met with the people who work for Lifeline, whether in a paid or voluntary capacity (and a great majority of them are in the latter), I can say that the calibre of people involved is extraordinary. As well as working in their own areas, they tend now to take calls from other parts of the country to try to share the load. I am a great advocate of the work that Lifeline does and anything that we as a community and the government of this state can do to support them is well worth it.

I thank members for their support for this motion. I commend the motion to the council but I also urge members to go out and continue to encourage the community to have the conversation and discussion about suicide.

Motion carried.

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