Let’s be honest about suicide prevention [Video]

A new strategy to prevent suicide has been released, but it appears little more than another set of recommendations that will be ignored, writes Simon Tatz.

*CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses suicide

SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY has been and gone, with the usual speeches, pledges, funding commitments and yet another suicide prevention strategy — Advice on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Consultation draft.

Another year of the same approaches to suicide prevention, offering the same vague recommendations that won’t be actioned.

Unable to do more than order reports and consult with stakeholders, governments and their appointed agencies produce seemingly endless prevention strategies. They continue to fund what they know and what they know will be acceptable to a sector unwilling to acknowledge the limited effectiveness of suicide prevention strategies.

The latest draft strategy begins with grim statistics:

‘Suicide rates in Australia remain unacceptably high. Every year in Australia, more than 3,000 people die by suicide — nearly nine …