Silver Dove Funerals’ Luke Newman’s suicide prevention video

THIS Queensland funeral director knows the impact of depression professionally and personally. So he decided to make a video he hopes might help save a life.

A QUEENSLAND funeral director has posted a heartfelt video imploring people considering suicide to get help, and for those around them to look for the signs.

Luke Newman from Silver Dove Funerals at Sumner and Logan has seen first hand the devastation suicide causes, and decided to film a video on the topic before publishing it online.

In the video, Mr Newman said he was saddened to learn of a story from the United States where a woman was jailed for involuntary manslaughter after sending her suicidal boyfriend a barrage of text messages urging him to kill himself.

“So I wanted to put the call out today to anyone and everyone who might be experiencing a really hard time at the moment, who may be in that dark place - please listen to me now,” he said.

“Your self worth is not defined by others’ opinion of you. Suicide is a very permanent solution to a very temporary time in life. Please pick up the phone and get the help that you want and you need.”

Mr Newman said he decided to speak out because he hoped it might make a difference to someone who saw it.

“As a funeral director, we sit down with families every single day and it’s hard enough to help them through such a difficult time when someone passes away from natural causes,” he said.

“But when it comes to someone who’s committed suicide or their life has ended really young, you can’t really put into words the anguish you feel from the family.”

“We hear about a lot of things leading up to the death. It’s all well and good to say ‘why didn’t they reach out to someone?’ but I think it takes someone to look them in the eye and let them know that suicide shouldn’t be an option in anyone’s life.”

Mr Newman has been in the funeral industry since he was a teenager, and regularly works with families who have lost someone to suicide.

He said many were men in their 40s and 50s, but there were also people under the age of 18.

“I’ve done a funeral for a nine-year-old who committed suicide. That was so tragic,” he said.

“That one had a really adverse effect on me. Just being there at the funeral and preparing him for his funeral - as a funeral director, you need to know what part of this is work and what part is your heart. But through that entire process, I just could not bring myself to make myself believe this is my work, this is what I have to do. Even weeks after, it was playing on my emotions. I was getting sad. You just have to think what was going through that young boy’s mind that he thought this was the only way out of it.”

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Apart from what he’s seen in his profession, Mr Newman also has personal experience of what might lead someone to suicide.

“I suffered from depression for many years myself,” he said.

“I was in a very bad place and was contemplating suicide, but in the end, I found a way out and found the help that I needed. People need to realise there is help out there.”

Mr Newman said he had received many private messages after posting the video online, and just hoped it would reach someone who needed it.

“If it takes an ordinary person like me to put out a video to try and get them to get help to prevent them from going that far, then that’s all I could ever ask for.”

If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.