A new series of suicide prevention strategies has been announced for New South Wales, with proponents claiming the nine-fold approach may reduce youth suicide attempts by up to 20% in some regions.
The Lifespan program, which has been formulated by the Black Dog Institute, proposes a holistic approach to preventing self-harm that empowers community intervention along with school awareness initiatives.
It also promises to increase the ability of GPs to detect and treat the early signs of depression, and to ensure the safe reporting of suicide within the media.
Spokesperson Jaelea Skehan says it will also involve “reducing the means of suicide.” This means that in the four initial Lifespan locations – Newcastle, the Central Coast, Illawarra, and Murrumbidgee – access to cliffs and high rooftops may be cordoned off to prevent attempts.
The ABC reports those locations were chosen as sites for the program due to their statistically higher average suicide rates in comparison to the remainder of New South Wales, and that’s a terrible record Lifespan intends to change.
Project director Rachel Green said the so-called “audit” of self-harm attempts in those locations “will enable regions for the first time to look at trend data… in real time” and act accordingly.
That’s heartening, considering the sobering knowledge that deaths by suicide comprise a full third of deaths for those between 15 and 24 in Australia. It’s also the #1 cause of death for those between 15 and 44.
The program will get underway in Newcastle from October, with the other regions following from 2017. If you’re interested in what the whole thing entails, check out the details here.
Source: Daily Telegraph / ABC.
Photo: Florian Gaertner / Getty.
Source: Daily Telegraph / ABC.
Photo: Florian Gaertner / Getty.
If you are feeling down or suicidal, or would like to talk to someone about how you have been feeling, please please please call Lifeline on 13 11 44, or chat to someone online at lifeline.org.au.
