NSW suicide rate down for the first time in 15 years, but rate among girls 16-24 up almost 40 per cent

Horrifying new figures show the number of girls and young women taking their own lives in NSW in the last year has jumped by almost 40 per cent. The question is why, and what do we do about it?

Schoolgirls Matilda ‘Tilly’ Rosewarne and Dolly Everett both died by suicide as young teenagers after being relentlessly bullied.

Shocking new figures show the number of girls and young women taking their own lives in NSW in the last year has jumped by almost 40 per cent.

Government figures seen exclusively by The Daily Telegraph reveal self harm and suicidal ideation among young women has also increased by 15 per cent since Covid began and shockingly by 38 per cent among girls under the age of 12.

Experts say the figures for young women are even more alarming when measured against a record drop in youth suicide across NSW which has almost halved since 2019 – bringing to an end a 15 year upward trend.

Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor said she has asked NSW Health to work with school, medical and community organisations to identify ways to tackle the trend.

“That is why we developed the data systems – to give us solutions,” she said.

Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor has two daughters in their 20s, Hannah, (left) and Holly. Picture: David Swift

“As Minister for Mental Health and the mother of two young women, it is deeply concerning that girls aged 16-24 are bucking an otherwise positive trend of declining youth suicides,” she said.

The latest figures show suicides by young women under 24 from 2020 to 2021 increased by 38 per cent. Thoughts of self harm among girls the same age during Covid from 2019 to 2022 increased by 15 per cent.

Most alarmingly the rate of self harm and suicidal thoughts among young girls aged under 12 increased by 38 per cent.

By contrast over the same period the rate of suicide by young men under the age of 24 has dropped by 24 per cent and suicidal thoughts has dropped by 10 per cent.

“Every life lost to suicide is an unfathomable tragedy, and I am committed to working with experts and people with lived experience to understand what more can be done,” Ms Taylor said.

“While we have seen three consecutive years of declining youth suicide across NSW, the job is not done. There will be no cause for celebration until youth suicide is at zero.”

Suicide survivors and families of victims believe young women have heightened anxiety about the state of the world and struggling with false ideals on social media.

Lynne Spencer lost her daughter Grace to suicide at the height of the pandemic after a 10-year battle with depression.

She said Grace, who was 25 when she died, was worried about climate change and world events.

“They internalise a lot of things, bigger things they feel they can‘t do anything about – things like climate change,” she said.

“They think ‘What is the point?’ when that is all in the background … there didn’t seem to be much hope.”

Ms Spencer added: “The girls that do this, they don’t understand how much they are loved. I still cry almost every day. Some days are just a write off,” she said.

“They just don‘t get it. They really are missed, their families are not better off without them.”

Bathurst schoolgirl Matilda ‘Tilly’ Rosewarne died by suicide at the age of 15 after being tormented by bullies.

Tilly was an avid artist and dancer.

Professor Adam Guastella, chair of child and youth mental health at Sydney University and Westmead Children‘s Hospital, said girls experience much higher rates of anxiety traditionally and experts believe they have a higher likelihood of internalising their emotional stress.

“It is guesswork as to why there has been an increase in females but we know that girls experience much higher rates of anxiety and traditionally we see girls experience anxiety and depression earlier whereas boys will often present with more overt disrupting behaviour,” he said.

“There are a number of explanations, the first is biological, women often enter puberty earlier and when experiencing emotional dysregulation they blame themselves more often than men.

“Women tend to internalise emotional distress more.”

Northern Territory teen Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett died by suicide at the age of 14. She, too, was relentlessly cyberbullied.

Prof Guastella said any factors that create a lack of control, including both familial and friendship issues or world events, can lead to heightened anxiety and depression.

“Loss of control and a feeling like you don‘t have a clear way forward in terms of control over your future is linked to anxiety and depression,” he said.

He added that the phenomenon of suicide clusters could be traced back to research which showed that young people can mirror self harm behaviours from their friends.

“There is no doubt that the peer group has an enormous influence in how people cope with anxiety and their own mental health. We do see poor coping strategies like self harm or other mental health strategies that are counter-productive, when they do occur in a peer group they are often copied by peers,” he said.

Monique Tait-Owens lost her friend and teammate to suicide in high school. Picture: Supplied

“I know the state government has put resources behind identifying those clusters and making sure they can get support in those mental health programs. The wing programs that have been set up to put not only educational support but also health support in those schools.”

Monique Tait-Owens, 19, lost her friend and teammate to suicide in high school and said social media also had a role to play in the declining mental health of young girls.

“Social media has an impact whether it be Snapchat, Instagram. Having standards of what influencers and what you should look like,” she said.

In addition to creating unattainable beauty standards, social media played a fatal part in the deaths of teens Tilly Rosewarne and Dolly Everett – two bright young women who died by suicide after shocking bullying on online platforms.

Ms Tait-Owens has also experienced depression and her own mental health battles fuelled by social pressures and school life.

“You go through a lot of friendship group changes in the first few years of high school, that was challenging.”