The Northern Territory loses a person to suicide almost every week

With almost one self-harm death a week, the Northern Territory is grappling with a suicide ‘crisis’, experts say. Explore the reasons behind the shocking epidemic here.

The Territory has the highest suicide rate in Australia but community mental health services say the sector remains critically underfunded.

The Territory has the highest suicide rate in Australia but community mental health services say the sector remains critically underfunded.

Northern Territory Mental Health Coalition chief executive Geoff Radford said almost one Territorian died by suicide each week.

“But the community-based mental health sector doesn’t have the resources it needs to get the outcomes we all seek,” Mr Radford said.

“The system is geared to acute, meaning people often don’t get help before it’s too late.”

Mr Radford said the NT’s dispersed population meant it was complex and costly to deliver services outside the urban centres.

“It also means there is more pressure on hospital services rather than people treated and supported in the community to stay well.”

Mr Radford said community services and the hospital were at capacity and people’s conditions were deteriorating while waiting for support.

In the five years to 2021, nearly 250 Territorians died by suicide, which according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare means there were 19.7 suicides per 100,000 people.

That is seven points higher than the national average.

In January, NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage expressed concerns about the “alarming rates of suicide” in the NT, which she called a “crisis”.

“From what I understand of the numbers, there has been a 25 per cent increase of suicides in the Northern Territory last year, over the previous year,” Ms Armitage said.

“This is a crisis of suicide for the Northern Territory, in my view.”

NT Chief Psychiatrist David Mitchell said the broader story was the system needed to work better.

Dr Mitchell said the Territory had a large Aboriginal population, with high morbidity, and high rates of suicide that were alongside some of the most incarcerated people in the world.

“There has been investment in step-up-step-down beds, but we need services to be more community focused,’ he said.

“We need cultures to change. We need services to be less paternalistic, and we need to put the patient in the centre because this is always about the rights of the care of the consumer.”

A lack of needs-based funding continues to hamper the sector, which Dr Mitchell said had the “highest need and least resources”.

Last year the Northern Territory signed a $43m bilateral agreement with the commonwealth to expand suicide prevention and mental health services.

The funding will be used to expand regional and remote mental health services.

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Minister Lauren Moss said the Territory always needed to do better despite the enormous challenge of delivering services across the vast and remote areas of the NT. Picture: Contributed

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Minister Lauren Moss said the Territory always needed to do better despite the enormous challenge of delivering services across the vast and remote areas of the NT.

“Like all other states and territories, staffing remains a huge barrier to delivering health services across Australia,” Mrs Moss said.

“Mental illness can impact any Territorian directly, or through family or community connections, we will continue to develop and improve services to deliver the best medical care that we can to those we love and care about the most.”