We need people to seek help before ending their lives.
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In fact, we need people to seek help to stop them ending their life. More than that, we need national action that will prevent someone from even thinking that life is not worth living.
That’s not me speaking – although those words express my sentiments exactly.
The man speaking is the pre-eminent suicidologist in Australia. His name is Graham Martin and he has been studying suicide for 35 years. He’s not famous in the way that Pat McGorry is famous, he’s not a household name in the way that those who are Australians of the year are household names.
But his work tells us much of what we know about suicide in Australia.
Martin hasn’t done any media interviews lately – and that’s because he hasn’t been very well. He’s got one of those degenerative diseases which makes it hard for him to get around. It was his birthday last week but he decided to stay in. And for that I’m very grateful.
Martin lives in Queensland now, in what is the third chapter of his eminent research life. And he spoke to me just after the release of the latest statistics on suicide from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
There is no point in panicking. Panicking will not help us get these intransigent figures down.
For the past five years, every four hours, someone in Australia dies by suicide. That’s more than 2000 lives a year lost. Two thousand faces which will never again be kissed by those who love them. Two thousand pairs of eyes which will never see their families again. And around those 2000 people there are thousands more who will be desperately sad, many forever.
It is hard to tell because of new data collection techniques used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, but we may be back to similar levels that we saw 10 years ago. At the very least, the numbers are still too high, despite reductions in some age groups, such as young people.
In the meantime we’ve spent millions of dollars trying to fix the problem. Why isn’t it fixed?
“I’m not knocking what Pat McGorry has done [but] the vast majority of money goes into visible quick and dirty clinical services,” says Martin.
And by the time you get to clinical services you’ve already got a problem. One of those problems may well be the services we currently fund. According to Martin only 9 per cent of national suicide prevention programs are evaluated.
“If you don't know what impact you are having, how the hell can you say you want or need extra money?” he asks. A good question – and we need to do some steady evaluation ourselves as a nation. I’m happy to empty out my pockets to fund what works – but we are going to need some serious science to make sure we are spending our money wisely.
Not because of the money. Hell, we fund politicians’ study trips so there is clearly no shortage. No, we need the serious science to stop the plague.
Martin says there are some things we can do which we know prevent suicide. It’s not about clinics and it’s not about drug therapy: “You just can’t spray antidepressants around and expect everyone to get better.”
Right now, on a building site in a state near you, around 6am, the workers have the opportunity to gather around to listen to a mate talk about dealing with feelings. As a result of that talk, six or seven people seek help. And they get it. Every single time. The building sites are being targeted by this program, called Mates in Construction, because that industry has levels of suicide significantly higher than the national average. There is some early evidence that this program is working.
Yet we’ve got fancy national organisations and still the suicide rate looks to be trending slightly upwards. We’ve got parents who are absolutely focused on ensuring their children have good self-esteem. And that’s not working either.
Martin is sure of two things from his nearly four decades of research. We need to learn resilience and we need to achieve mindfulness.
Resilience is pretty straightforward. It’s the skill you have to bounce back after defeat or struggle or rejection. It’s the ability to get back up no matter what’s happened. Self-esteem is a fragile concept. What happens when it is damaged? How do you deal with it?
Mindfulness comes in at that exact moment. It’s the process where you become aware of your emotions. They might be in a hideous state – but you know what works to soothe you. You’ve got tactics which help you deal with frustration, anger and loss; a battle plan for a long campaign.
There would not be a single Australian who would seek to deprive suicide prevention programs of any funding. But we need to know what works. And if we already know that teaching kids to be able to bounce back works, let’s make sure that’s in the parenting books – starting today.
If, reading this, you feel you would like to speak to someone, please call Lifeline: 13 11 14; or the Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467. For young people 5-25 years, please call
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
And for men of all ages nationally:
MensLine Australia
1300 78 99 78
Twitter @jennaprice or email me on jenna_p@bigpond.net.au