As many as one in ten Indigenous deaths could be caused by suicide, a suicide prevention researcher has warned. Gerry Georgatos says the official statistics are masking the true extent of the crisis, and he's sounding the alarm on the rate of suicide amongst young Indigenous Australians. 'Too many are dying too young,' says Georgatos. The researcher says the Indigenous youth suicide crisis is so 'catastrophic', he's set up an online petition calling on the...read more
Suicide rates among Indigenous people in the Kimberley region of Western Australia are among the highest in the world. During the period 2001–2010, age-adjusted suicide rates among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians were respectively 21.4 and 10.3 per 100 000 population per year. As staff of the regional state government-funded mental health service provider, Kimberley Mental Health and Drug Service (KMHDS), we undertook a retrospective audit of an internal suicide and self-harm database that revealed much...read more
Last week’s terrible news that a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl had taken her own life shook many Australians. Yet there would be few Aboriginal families who have not already been affected by the suicide or attempted suicide of their young people. This includes our own extended families and kin.read more
Suicide is a complex behaviour with many causes. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples there are specific cultural, historical, and political considerations that contribute to the high prevalence, and that require the rethinking of conventional models and assumptions.read more
