Youth suicide: Northern beaches families share grief at cluster meeting
Shattered families have revealed the devastating toll of the northern beaches suicide cluster at an emergency meeting held at Avalon today to devise an urgent response plan to the crisis.
NSW
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Families directly impacted by a cluster of suicides on the northern beaches broke down when describing the devastating toll it has had on them.
Avalon residents and mental health organisations gathered today to talk about a spate of suicides on Sydney’s idyllic coastal fringe, where 23 people have been lost since January to suicide, NSW Police say.
Medical practitioners, however, say anecdotally the figure is more than 40.
In 2018 police said 30 people died from suicide.
The area was rocked by the suicide of a much-loved community member within the past three weeks.
The meeting was also attended by representatives from the NSW Government’s Advocate for Children and Young People.
Justine Gordon, CEO of mental health organisation the Burdekin Association, said they were desperate to teach people that it is OK to reach out for help.
“It is distressing when a young person does take their life because you can see the opportunities they have,” Ms Gordon said.
“We can see their strength and everything that they can’t see themselves.”
Much of the discussion at the event – which was attended by about 40 people – was on getting more mental health first aid training for both older and younger residents.
The Sunday Telegraph is campaigning to both make mental health first aid training compulsory for all NSW teachers and increase the number of school counsellors to levels recommended by the NSW Coroner.
“As a parent of teenage children you get to the point where they don’t listen to you and think you don’t know anything,” Ms Gordon said.
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“It is about introducing responsible and supportive adults around them who can inspire and encourage them, and who your teenagers can go to if they are struggling.
“On an individual level we were challenging everybody about what they can do within their own personal networks.”
Rotary Upper Northern Beaches past president Tamara Sloper-Harding - a mother of four teenagers - said it was a hard but productive meeting.
“There were a couple of families in there who have been affected and it was very emotional for them,” she said.
“They had counsellors there for everyone.
“It was a really unusual meeting and very unusual in that it was community driven.”
Community members living near suicide hot spots also opened up about the haunting impact on their own wellbeing.
Rotary Upper Northern Beaches will this week launch a fundraiser for youth mental services in the area.
Vulnerable youth mentoring organisation Street Works says 11under-18s have committed suicide on both the northern beaches and the north shore since January.
Chief executive Helen Banu said that in her seven years at the head of her organisation, the past six months had been “off the Richter scale”.
“We can always accommodate young people and they can always reach out for help, but there is no doubt the sector is in distress,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.
“There has definitely been an increase in deaths by suicide on the northern beaches of any age and any gender. Young people are part of that.
Ms Banu said her service – which links directly with youth mental health and counselling services for kids aged 11-18 years – has gone from receiving 10-15 referrals a month to receiving that same number every week.
Paris Jeffcoat started youth mental health charity One Eighty in 2017 in response to a number of youth suicides on the northern beaches.
Her group and a number of others will attend Sunday’s meeting.
“There are a lot of concerned community members that are hearing about the suicides, know families that are involved or live close to where suicides have happened,” the 25-year-old said.
Avalon resident Mark Cowley, 51, is pushing for a Lifeline phone to be installed at hot spots in the hope that people will reach out to someone for help.
He said he and many others felt traumatised every time they heard a helicopter flying overhead – a sign of a recovery operation.
“We need a last line of defence and even if it saves one person it is worth it,” the father of four said. “I can speak for a lot of people when I say that my mind is always going about this. It feels like almost every week we are hearing about another death.
“We want people to know that it is not weak to speak.”
“We have been telling people to get training, including mental health first aid.
“For young people, their education and casual income has been impacted severely.”
Ms Jeffcoat said that while financial support from JobKeeper and JobSeeker had made all the difference in terms of people’s wellbeing, “young people are doing it tough on the beaches”.
The tough conditions have prompted an encouraging increase in people seeking help, local mental health organisations said.