Not Alone: How this campaign will safely and accurately report on suicide

Suicide is a complex issue that needs to be handled sensitively. That’s why we have a clear message we want all young Australians to know.

More than 350 young people will have taken their own lives by the end of this year and for every suicide, there will have been 100 to 200 more attempts.

Tragically suicide is the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15 to 24, and this is something that news.com.au desperately wants to change.

We want to use our huge national reach to advocate for good mental health outcomes for young Australians. But suicide is a complex issue and, while it’s important to raise awareness, we recognise that articles about suicide can also do harm.

This is why the team at news.com.au is committed to responsible reporting of suicide through our mental health campaign, Not Alone.

Not Alone mental health campaign.

We will follow Mindframe’s guidelines which were developed to support safe and accurate media reporting, portrayal and communication of suicide.

We will be careful not to glamorise or glorify death or present suicide as an option for dealing with problems. We will also avoid reporting on suicide method and location, and we will consider the language we use and make sure we do not sensationalise the issue.

Instead we will focus on the fact that suicide is a tragic waste and has a devastating impact on others. We will focus on those who overcame suicidal thinking, on personal stories that promote hope and encourage others to seek help.

We want to increase community awareness, start a conversation and show young people how to help a mate who is struggling.

We will be a platform for incredible young women like Milly Bannister, founder and CEO of ALLKND, a not-for-profit organisation that teaches a peer-to-peer mental health first aid program. Milly will tell the 12 million Australians that read news.com.au every month what young people want you to know about their mental health.

Milly Bannister.

We will hear some tragic stories, such as that of Brittany Nicholas who took her own life at age 24. And we will hear from families who will ask what they could have done differently.

“What could I have done differently? In our circumstances at the time, there was probably a lot more I could’ve done,” Brittany’s brother Rhett told news.com.au. “I could’ve just been in tune with what was happening.

“But if you’re not able to process what is in front of you, it makes it hard. What I learnt in the years that followed is that conversations only go so far.”

He says families should talk with their children and siblings and their feelings and what they are going through.

“It’s something that isn’t spoken about at a young age. We’re taking steps forward but there’s not enough of it.”

My big hope is that young Australians realise that they are not alone, that they share their worries, have access to support services and suicide rates decline because even one life lost is one too many.

Lisa Muxworthy is editor-in-chief at news.com.au

Originally published as Not Alone: How this campaign will safely and accurately report on suicide