Image – Gerry Georgatos
by
Gerry Georgatos
May
16th, 2015
Suicide
prevention should be one of the most urgent priorities of our times – globally
and nationally. The rates of suicide should be known, disaggregated and
unmasked as the humanitarian crisis that in effect it really is – though little
known, suicide is one of the issues of our times. Annually, suicide takes more
lives on average than wars, civil strife, all violence combined. It takes more
lives annually than most diseases do. In Australia, suicides exceed road
fatalities. Why then is not suicide prevention one of the national priorities?
The
contributing factors need to be understood, they vary demographically and from
people to people – culturally and ‘racially’. In Australia, the majority of
suicides have been linked to various stressors – including mental health,
various trauma, cost of living pressures, a sense of failure, depression, and
among the elderly there are underlying factors such as pain. However for
Australia’s First Peoples the contributing factors are markedly different –
they are linked to extreme poverty and disadvantage from the beginning of life,
intergenerational trauma, cultural identity, racialisation and racism. Often
alcohol and substance abuse are considered by many as underlying causes but
these are not underlying causes and rather they are at best contributing
factors borne symptomatically of the above.
For
non-Aboriginal Australians who have suicided the average estimated loss of life
is about 30 years per person however for the First Peoples of this continent
who take their lives the average loss per person in years is more than 50
years. To put average loss of life years per person into context, we can
compare this to cancer – the estimated loss of life years per person dying of
cancer is 8 years. Therefore suicide not only takes more lives but more life
years. The majority of suicides by First Peoples are below the age of 35 years,
with the most at-risk age category the 25 to 30 year olds.
There
are other high risk groups – LGBTQI with Aboriginal LGBTQI up to four times more
at-risk than their non-Aboriginal counterparts; those who have experienced
prison – in the first year post-release they are up to ten times more likely to
intentionally self-harm and suicide than while in prison and up to 40 times
more likely than the rest of the national population; those with Acquired Brain
Injury are also at between ten to twenty times more likely to endure suicidal
ideation.
On
average one in 20 of Australia’s First Peoples will die by suicide, this is
catastrophic, but the real rate is more likely one in 10 – there are
under-reporting issues. Wholesale suicide prevention for First Peoples can only
succeed if it includes the redressing of inequalities in reference to the
social determinants – homelessness, housing, social infrastructure, education –
the elimination of extreme poverty. Without the strengthening of social health,
far too many will lapse under pressures culminating in depression, clinical
disorders and violence. Substance abuse are merely dangerous relief from the
various personal dysfunction and sense of hopelessness.
The
radical reduction in suicide rates among this continent’s First Peoples will
not be achieved without social inequalities redressed, without degraded
communities and towns of predominant Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
populations at long last brought to parity with the rest of the nation in terms
of their social conditions.
Suicide
prevention workshops, suicide prevention ambassadors and reductionist policies
dealing with symptoms rather than causality will not only go nowhere but will
more than likely ensure suicide rates increase, and that attempted suicides and
intentional self-harm rates continue. Any strategy that suggests or claims it
can achieve radical reductions with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
suicide rates without an investment in social infrastructure is lying. By now
everyone should know better.
Western
Australia is the wealthiest jurisdiction in Australia. Australia is the world’s
12th largest economy. Western Australia has the world’s highest median wage.
But far too many of the State’s First Peoples live impoverished, live in
third-world akin conditions. Western Australia’s suicide rate is higher than
the national rate. From 2007 to 2012 it had a suicide rate of 13.9 per 100,000
population but if you subtract the State’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander population, which is less than 3 per cent of the State’s total
population, the State’s suicide rate would be significantly lower. In the same
period the State’s suicide rate for First Peoples was nearly 40 per 100,000
population.
Suicide
is the tip of the iceberg, the worst culmination. Nearly 400,000 Australians
each year contemplate suicide, with thereabouts 70,000 suicide attempts
annually.
Though
the underlying issues to suicide for non-Aboriginal and to First Peoples, and
the contributing and protective factors are different, there is no more
pressing issue that our Governments should focus on – bona fide suicide
prevention.
Western
Australia has the highest rate of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
suicide in the nation, and especially so since 2005. The Kimberley region has
the nation’s highest rate of suicide of First Peoples, and is only matched
sadly by Far North Queensland’s First Peoples.
Mental
illness is generally slated as the predominant contributing factor to suicides
– Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal however it is not
the predominant factor, but something cumulative or consequent, particularly
for the majority of First Peoples.
The
only way forward to bring about radical reductions in the rates are through
transformational ideologues – for First Peoples and their rates of intentional
self-harms, attempted suicides and suicides will only be brought at least in
line with non-Aboriginal rates when equality is dished out; by equality I mean
the investment in the social infrastructure of communities, towns, urban masses
predominately populated by First Peoples but for too long degraded by one
Government after another.
Anything
else is mindless hogwash, more neglect, endless racism.
–
Gerry Georgatos is a researcher suicide prevention and in racism
Lifeline’s
24-hour hotline, 13 11 14
Crisis
Support and Suicide Prevention Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636
Other
articles and media on the suicide crisis and suicide prevention by Gerry
Georgatos:
Plato
said engage with our politicians or risk being governed by the dumb – the
suicide crises
Another
misguided reductionist plan to reduce rates of suicide self-harm
The
leading cause of death – for 15 to 44 year old Australians – is suicide | The
Stringer
People
strengthening people focus on suicide prevention
Understanding
difference and unfairness is a first step in suicide prevention | The Stringer
Taboo,
stigma and shame need to get out of the way for suicide prevention | The
Stringer
Suicide
is heading to a humanitarian crisis – it is a leading cause of death | The
Stringer
Suicides
are preventable – here is what we must begin to do | The Stringer
The
extensiveness of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander suicides – 1 in 20 |
The Stringer
Preventing
suicide – “no greater legacy” | The Stringer
Understanding
Australia’s suicide crises
Suicides,
high among overseas born and second generation Australians
Child
suicidal ideation on the increase
It
is racism killing our people – suicides born of racism
Kimberley
suicide rate – one of the world’s highest – Yiriman is the way to go
My
Country – But look how I am forced to live
What
will it take to end Aboriginal disadvantage, the inequalities and the various
crises?
What
sort of Australia is this? Seven homeless children in an asbestos slum
Six
homeless children fighting for a better tomorrow
Quality
of life for Australians 2nd only to Norway but for Aboriginal Peoples 122nd
Dumbartung
convenes suicide crisis summit
Suicide
attempts among women on the rise
Australia’s
Aboriginal children detained at the world’s highest rates
Culture
should not be denied – change needs unfolding, not impost
Everyone
in the Territory doing well, except for Aboriginal Peoples
Australia’s
Aboriginal children, the world’s highest suicide rate
Wes
Morris slams government suicide prevention programs
How
many more suicides will it take? How many more deaths?
Hopelessness
in suicide riddled communities
More
government neglect of Aboriginal children
In
identity lay the answers – ATSI suicides
$25.4
billion spent on Aboriginal disadvantage is a lie
Beagle
Bay to State Parliament – Farrer speaks out on suicides
Government
to address Aboriginal suicides
Empowerment
996
Aboriginal deaths by suicide – another shameful Australian record
996
deaths by suicide – one in 24 die by suicide
Australia’s
Aboriginal suicide epidemic – whose child will be the next to die?
77
Aboriginal suicides in South Australia alone
Kimberley’s
Aboriginal peoples old at 45 years
Australia,
the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal people
Close
the gap failed
Despite
what’s being reported, life expectancy not improving for ATSI peoples – 1 in 3
dead by 45 years of age
Tumult
of death – 400 suicides in last three years
30
suicides in the last three months as we wait for promises to be kept
Suicide
crisis – genocidal numbers
Suicide
crisis – from tragic to catastrophic
Suicide
crisis needs real funding and actions
Hundreds
more will suicide if we wait for 2015
Nothing
will be done about suicides crisis
Scullion
bent on saving lives
Elders
across Australia say governments need to listen to them on how to address youth
suicide
Suicides
– western society and ancient cultures clash
If
we are serious about suicide prevention
Australia’s
suicide crisis should not be played down – the media must highlight it
From
my father’s death bed to the must-do to end the suicides
Governments
promise on ending suicides must come good now
More
confirmation of what everyone knows, was suicide prevention inadequate
The
must-do need to listen and trust if suicides crisis is to end
Working
together – mental health and suicide prevention roundtable
Break
the taboo around suicides, we reduce suicides
Suicide
crises born of Australia’s inhumanity
Suicides
– children
Suicides
crisis linked to incarceration
Wes
Morris urges funding for cultural methodologies
The
betrayal of our children – the Northern Territory
New
project offers hope to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicides
Depression
and suicide prevention must be top of the agenda this century
World
Suicide Prevention Day – suicide takes more lives than war
Western
Australia – 1 in 13 in a jail, a bullshit state of affairs
Forgotten
children of the promised land – the fight to save rural Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander communities
Yiriman
saving lives in the midst of the Kimberley’s suicide crises
Healing
Halls Creek
The
smaller a community, the less likely a suicide
Overcoming
disadvantage report shows disadvantage not overcome
600
Black deaths in custody by 2025 – jail numbers to soar
Get
out of the way – Aboriginal suicide rates will drop
A
nation shamed when the solution for its children is homelessness
Christmas,
a period of vulnerability for many
Stop
peddling lies $30 billion spent on Indigenous disadvantage is a lie
To
end our trauma government must stop the assault on our people and our culture
In
Australia there is the Aboriginal rights struggle
Kirstie
Parker, Mick Gooda say enough of fine words – close the gap a big fat lie
Highest
child removal rates in the world worse than Stolen Generations
Other
media:
A
nation shamed when child sees suicide as the solution
Families
urged to look after each other as suicide rates soar
Response
to rash of suicides in remote WA regions
ABC
7:30 Report – Deaths in custody and jail rates
Radio:
Tiga
Bayles and Gerry Georgatos discuss the suicide crises
The
Wire – The suicide crisis
Unpaid
fines leading Indigenous over representation
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