Cairns mental health advocates call for youth suicide prevention programs following the closure of the Dr Edward Koch Foundation
Dulcie Bird doesn’t know how many young people’s lives she’s saved through the Dr Edward Koch Foundation. But the Cairns mental health advocate has seen first-hand the consequences youth suicide can have on families, friends and entire communities.
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Dulcie Bird doesn’t know how many young people’s lives she’s saved through the Dr Edward Koch Foundation.
But the Cairns mental health advocate has seen first-hand the consequences youth suicide can have on families, friends and entire communities.
In March 2011, high school student Declan Crouch disappeared just a month shy of his 14th birthday.
“For months we thought we had a child who may have been kidnapped,” Ms Bird said.
“So, when it was discovered that this 13-year-old boy had died by suicide, it was tragic news.
“It was an awakening for a lot of parents.”
In early June, police confirmed Declan had taken his life after his body was discovered in a swampy mangrove near his Machans Beach home.
As Cairns struggled to come to terms with the news of the missing boy’s death, Declan’s mother, Ruth, bravely rallied the community to speak openly about an issue that had long been a silent killer.
With the help of the foundation — which sadly closed its doors this week — the once taboo topic became okay to bring up within high school classrooms and other safe spaces, Ms Bird said.
“Declan brought home to the community that young people suffer from mental illnesses,” she said.
“To that end, we developed a youth suicide prevention workshop.
“We were very fortunate that in a time when suicide wasn’t even allowed to be spoken about in schools, we were allowed to trial it and it was very successful.”
Despite funding lapsing for the program, Ms Crouch said the services provided by the program had a lasting legacy.
“My son would be 27 now, leading a full and interesting life as are his friends,” she said.
“At age 13 he found himself in a dark place and could not see a way out of it despite all the support and love around him.
“I believe the Koch Foundation has saved many lives of those that were in that same spot (as Declan) and that its impact has been felt across our community in very many ways.
“The closure of the foundation is a great loss for FNQ but I am hoping other mental health agencies will step into the breach as there is still much to be done.”
While the success of a suicide prevention program can be hard to measure, Ms Bird said young people still needed more outlets to talk about their feelings.
“We’ve only been able to give those workshops on an ad-hoc basis with organisations that reached out to us since then,” she said.
“But we know that more and more people were presenting to the school nurse, or guidance officers (afterwards) because they were learning that they needed to seek help.”
“We need to achieve more with our young people and it can be done with enough funding because we have the will and spirit to make it happen.”
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