The NSW government is renewing its approach to preventing suicide, saying lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic present an opportunity to pivot.
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The focus will be on people and communities, with care targeting prevention, early intervention and aftercare.
The new five-year plan from the NSW Mental Health Commission comes after dire warnings of spiking suicide rates throughout the pandemic went mostly unrealised, Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor told AAP.
"(Very respected) people came out during the pandemic ... saying the mental health outcomes would be catastrophic," she said.
These outlooks did not come to fruition and the number of suicides dropped slightly after the outbreak of COVID-19 in NSW, from 946 in 2019, to 901 in 2020, and 918 in 2021, Ms Taylor said.
From January 1 to July 31 this year, 586 people died by suicide, according to NSW Health data.
Ms Taylor attributed this to the resilience of the health and emergency response sector, adding the government had taken the opportunity to improve its approach after consulting with dozens of suicide prevention experts and agencies.
More than half of people who attempt to take their own life have never made contact with any kind of health service, meaning intervention after an event is vital, both for victims and their communities.
"Aftercare is so important because if you have a suicide in your community, it affects everybody," Ms Taylor said.
"If we can go in immediately after that and put wraparound services in place, we decrease that risk of further suicides in the area," she said.
While developing the framework, the commission heard the voices of people with experience of suicide and suicide attempts, Mental Health Commissioner Catherine Lourey said.
"For each life lost to suicide in NSW, there are also significant impacts for their families and friends," she said.
Ms Taylor said the pandemic triggered a generational shift and gave people a bigger voice to speak up about mental health issues.
"I think that's a really powerful thing," she said.
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Australian Associated Press
