Thirty-seven people have committed suicide over the past six years during or after treatment by the territory’s mental health system, and another 18 deaths are being investigated by the coroner.
Documents released to The Canberra Times under Freedom of Information have given the first snapshot of how many people on Mental Health ACT’s client database have taken their lives since 2006. Two of those people were on a psychiatric treatment order, or forced mental health intervention, when they committed suicide.
While some people took their lives at a Mental Health ACT facility or during patient leave, the majority of suicides were not carried out by inpatients.
The figures reveal the majority of cases involved men, and those aged between 30 and 40 were the most likely to commit suicide. Of particular concern were young people between 15 and 25 and older people in their 90s who killed themselves, a clinician said.
The highest number of suicides in one year among those who had received mental health treatment was in 2007, when 11 died. That would represent just over a third of the territory’s total suicides that year, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.
The latest available statistics for suicides in the ACT was 2010, when 35 people took their own lives. The territory has the third lowest rate of suicide in the country and sits just below the national average of 10.4 suicides per 100,000 people.
SupportLink chief executive Tony Campbell, whose team ‘‘sits in the room of the family at nearly every suicide’’, said some people were being let down by ACT’s mental health system. There would be value in a community-wide review into mental health services, both government and community, in the ACT.
‘‘There is a system. Is the system fantastic? No. Could it work better? Yes,’’ Mr Campbell said.
‘‘The best thing we can do is to make sure the systems are working in tandem with one another.
‘‘We’ve got a mental health system that probably could work with the community sector better.
‘‘We’ve got a frustration where people are put into emergency departments after an attempted suicide and find themselves back out on the street the same day.’’ Clinical Services director and chief psychiatrist Peter Norrie said former patients often came back several years later, grateful for the support that had been given.
But Lifeline Canberra chief executive Mike Zissler said many families in the community felt they were not being treated well by the system because it was ‘‘overstretched’’ and ‘‘not well funded’’.
According to the ACT Health Directorate, funding has increased over the past decade from $27.4 million to $82.6 million in 2010-11. Of that most recent figure, about $10 million was spent on community sector mental health services.
Mr Zissler said that the funding ratio was too much in favour of acute mental health care – the buildings and professional staff in the hospital setting. He would like to see more money invested into the community sector and into families caring for the mentally ill.