Fed: Education behind decline in youth suicides - Wesley Mission

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2001
Fed: Education behind decline in youth suicides - Wesley Mission

SYDNEY, Dec 13 AAP - Education had played a strong role in the continuing decline in
youth suicide, welfare workers said today.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2000 released this week showed the rate
of youth suicides was down five per cent on 1999, continuing a trend from 1997.

Wesley Mission superintendent Reverend Gordon Moyes said the major reduction in youth
suicide had occurred in NSW and Victoria where the mission's LifeForce prevention program
operated.

"What we are seeing is the growth of a stronger preventative and community-based approach,"

Dr Moyes said.

"The Commonwealth government has established new initiatives, particularly in the area
of mental health and there has been widespread growth in community-based programs."

The Wesley Mission had trained more than 10,000 people to identify the signs of suicide
and depression and how to take preventative action, he said.

This included seminars in 28 communities across rural NSW and high school students
hearing about the importance of supporting and listening to peers.

"The response has been overwhelmingly positive with people talking openly about isolation
and lack of resources experienced in rural communities," he said.

The number of suicides of young people aged 15-24 declined considerably, from 380 in
1999 to 338 last year.

This followed a trend where the number of youth suicides decreased from 510 in 1997
to 446 in 1998 - a drop of nearly 34 per cent over the three years to the end of 2000,
the ABS figures showed.

While figures over the past three years have dropped from 117 to 65 in Victoria, from
170 to 99 in NSW and 118 to 81 in Queensland, the picture is not so positive for the rest
of the country.

Youth suicides have gone up from 11 to 24 in South Australia since 1997, from 3 to
13 in Tasmania and have remained static for Western Australia, ACT and Northern Territory,
which recorded 44, 5 and 7 respectively.

Nationwide, suicide rates among men aged 25-44 years were the highest of any group.

Andrew Kay, executive director of youth help group Here For Life, yesterday said the
decrease in the eastern states was largely due to the fact that all three major youth
suicide groups were based in NSW and Victoria.

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KEYWORD: SUICIDE

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