The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its yearly death report (file to: grizzly, but important) and for the first time in years, the suicide rate has actually dropped.
A total of 2,862 Australians died by suicide in 2016, which gives us a rate of 11.7 deaths per thousand people. That’s less than last year (which had a rate of 12.6) but is still a full point higher than the rate ten years ago.
In short? Suicide rates decreased from 2015 to 2016, but that’s not enough to combat the decade-long trend we’ve seen of suicide rates increasing year by year.
And sadly, the rate of young people dying by suicide hasn’t changed. Dr. Fiona Shand, a senior research fellow at the Black Dog Institute, told PEDESTRIAN.TV that the change in rate is mostly driven by a decrease in suicides by middle aged men, and that the rate for young people is “remaining stubbornly unchanged.”
She said that the data currently collected by the ABS doesn’t really provide an answer to key questions around why suicide rates decreased from 2015, but stayed the same for young people.
“I wish we knew why,” she said. “Unfortunately the data we have at the moment really doesn’t allow us to answer that question. There is a need for greater investment on getting timely data on suicide deaths and suicide rates, and then being able to set up studies which actually look at the causes.”
She said that it was likely that that employment rates and health services had played a role, however. “As employment rates change, we see changes in suicide rates,” she said. “It may also be that the health service has improved.”
Source: ABS.
What needs to change in order to decrease youth suicide?
Dr. Shand says that there are proven ways of decreasing suicide rates, particularly when it comes to young people.
“I think there needs to be change on a number of levels,” she says. “The first thing is that there are broad governmental policies that impact on suicide. We know that employment and employment support policies, and even education policies can impact on suicide, as does the availability of alcohol, availability of treatment for alcohol and drug problems.
“The second area that I think needs to be addressed is making sure that young people have the right kind of mental health services available to them. They need to be youth specific, and we’re certainly seeing Headspace do a good job in that area, but access still remains difficult, particularly for people who are in rural and remote areas.
“We don’t want to be sending someone who’s 15 years old to an adult service”
The third thing, she says, is educating young people around mental health.
“We need to go to where young people are,” she says. “We need to be looking at high school based mental health literacy, education programs, peer support programs, and programs that work on increasing help seeking. Everyone (or almost everyone) is reached in those programs.”
SANE Australia CEO Jack Health says despite overall suicide stats being down across Australia, the fact that they remain steady for young people means it’s no reason to celebrate.
“We still have so much work to do, including reducing stigma and improving post-discharge processes for people who have attempted suicide,” he said.
“We also need to be looking at increasing expenditure for those living in rural and regional Australia where suicide rates have been twice as high than in capital cities, yet the expenditure in services per head is half as much.”
How else are Australians dying?
Drugs, for one. Australia recorded the highest number of drug-induced deaths since the late 1990s, with the most common drugs being Benzodiazepines and Oxycodone, which are perspiration meds used to manage pain and anxiety.
A total of 1,808 Australians suffered a drug-induced death in 2016, compared to 1,740 in 1999.
The ABS says the most likely person to die of a drug overdose in 2016 was a middle-aged man, living outside of a metropolitan city, accidentally misusing common prescription drugs with one another.
In the 90s, however, a drug death was more likely to be attributed to young people, with morphine, heroin or benzodiazepines detected in toxicology at death.
In means that young people are in fact dying from drug use at a much, much lower rate than in the 90s, despite the overall number being so high.
What about ice?
Then you have ice, which is huge problem facing Australia. Deaths from psychostimulants, which include methamphetamies and ice, have quadrupled since 1999. They’re now they third most common substance associated with drug deaths (just in front of heroin).
So are we all dying by drugs and/or suicide?
Not at all. The leading cause of death for Aussies continues to be heart disease, although these numbers continue to be in decline. When you specifically look at women, however, the leading cause of death comes dementia.
“Improvements in treatments and prevention of heart disease have contributed to increased life expectancy, but this has also led to increased deaths from conditions such as dementia which affect predominantly very elderly Australians,” said James Eynstone-Hinkins, Director of Health and Vital Statistics at the ABS.
Cancers accounted for 30% of deaths in Australia in 2016 (leading with lung, of course), while breast cancer was the sixth ranked cause of death. Diabetes followed in at seventh place.
But despite everything, suicide is still the leading cause of death for young people. It’s so so important to know when (and where) to seek help – if you need any help with that, all the answers you need are below.
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Kids Helpline (for young people aged 5–25): 1800 55 1800
BeyondBlue: 1300 22 4636
