Victorian coroner finds association between youth suicide and social networking sites

VICTORIAN councils have vowed to lead the fight against suicide as a coroner’s report found a link between social networking and people taking their lives.

Craig Membrey

VICTORIAN councils have vowed to lead the fight against suicide as a coroner’s report found a link between social networking and people taking their lives.

On Friday coroner Audrey Jamieson published her findings on the 12 young people who took their lives in the local government areas of Cardinia and Casey in 2011 and 2012.

In finding that a “cluster” of preventable deaths had occurred during that period, she urged the Municipal Association of Victoria develop a suicide response plan for all councils.

In late 2011 the City of Casey formed a youth suicide steering committee made up of emergency services and government agencies so people at risk could be identified through primary care.

Ms Jamieson found that during 2011 Casey and Cardinia experienced a higher rate of suspected suicides than in the previous year for people aged 24 and under.

In Casey the frequency of self-harming incidents more than doubled from 30 in 2009 to 69 the following year.

An analysis by the Coroners Prevention Unit found while there was no direct causal behaviour between exposure to suicidal behaviour on a social network and suicide, there was still an association.

Chris Tanti, CEO of youth mental health foundation Headspace, revealed he was in discussions with Facebook about monitoring potential suicidal behaviour of social media users.

Father determined to make difference in name of son

GRIEF glistens in Craig Membrey’s eyes when he recalls the day his son Rowan took his own life.

The tough-as-nails truckie can still vividly see the police car through his video intercom before realising something was terribly wrong.

“I was gobsmacked,” Mr Membrey said of that fateful visit in March 2011.

“He had the world at his feet but, unfortunately, he couldn’t control his pain.”

Rowan, 17, was one of the first of a wave of teenage suicides in southeast Melbourne who had ended their lives with the same lethal means.

With each senseless and avoidable death, Mr Membrey’s grief compounded.

He had hoped his son, a talented BMX bike rider and apprentice boilermaker, would one day take over the family-run transport business.

That dream had ended in an instant, but there was no telling the ripple effect Mr Membrey’s personal grief would create on a national scale.

Rowan’s angelic image has travelled some 1.7 million kilometres across the continent, painted on the back of a glistening prime mover in Mr Membrey’s quest to avoid a similar tragedy.

He has taken the conversation of suicide prevention, one he’d never uttered previously, to whole new audiences in the construction and transport industries — and they’re listening, too.

Flags for depression and anxiety group Beyond Blue, Mr Membrey’s chosen charity, will soon fly above worksites throughout Australia.

For the workers who will view those flags, his message is simple: “When you’re down you need a buddy.”

Mr Membrey also takes his tale of loss to schools and believes pupils desperately need to be educated on managing their own emotional wellbeing through such a turbulent time of life.

“I’m not going to change the world, but I’m going to have a good crack at it,” he said.

Anyone experiencing personal problems can seek help through: Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

headspace 1800 650 890