Parents to be trained as ‘first responders’ to aid suicide prevention

Parents are being called up to the front line of Australia’s mental health crisis as experts brace for the cumulative impact of the pandemic, climate disasters and rising cost of living pressures.

Data from the NSW Suicide Monitoring System showed that suspected deaths in the state this year have trended above the numbers recorded over the past three years.

NSW Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor plans to offer 200,000 parents suicide prevention training.Credit: Oscar Colman

From mid-November, the NSW government will train 200,000 parents to be “first responders” to identify people at risk of suicide, develop a safety plan and refer them for help.

Mental Health Minister Bronnie Taylor said she believed the program would be the largest single suicide prevention training effort in the world.

“We know that mental health issues emerge 12 to 18 months after a traumatic period, so we have been focusing on implementing a comprehensive recovery package since January this year,” she said.

Annual deaths data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released earlier this month, showed suicide numbers remained relatively stable between 2020 and 2021.

However, suicide prevention advocates say the stable figures could be misleading, with coronial investigations following a suspected suicide taking 12 to 18 months. Evidence that the impact of long lockdowns in NSW and Victoria will likely only be seen over the coming months and years.

“We know that following a disaster – whether it’s an economic disaster, a natural disaster, or a health disaster like we have just gone through – it’s two to three years later that we actually see an uptick in suicide,” said Nieves Murray, CEO of Suicide Prevention Australia.

To July 31, there were 586 suspected deaths by suicide recorded in NSW; compared with 537 during the same period in 2021; 506 in 2020; and 504 in 2019. Victorian figures have also trended above a pre-pandemic average.

The LivingWorks Start online course will be promoted to parents through high school newsletters and social media pages.

The self-paced course takes about 90 minutes and covers strategies for recognising the actions or thoughts that may indicate suicidal ideation, how to refer a person towards help and develop a safety plan, as well as how to ask directly about suicide.

“You go through a role play in which you’re saying the word ‘suicide’ because if you don’t say it, the person doesn’t know that’s what you mean,” said LivingWorks director of suicide prevention Marc Bryant.

While the rollout will target parents, the course teaches skills that can be used to have conversations with people of any age.

Ten thousand targeted community members, including school staff and youth workers, have already taken part in the $14 million training, which was announced as part of a $130 million state government mental health package last year.

An independent review of the same training provided to parents at some Victorian schools, published in April, found their understanding of best practices was increased three months after taking the course, and they did not report finding the course upsetting.

While suspected suicides in NSW have risen this year, youth suicides have actually declined over the three-year period, with Taylor optimistic in a recent letter to youth mental health organisations that while “there will be no cause for celebration until youth suicide is at zero”, three consecutive years of lower figures was “not a statistical aberration or quirk of the pandemic”.

However, Murray said there was a risk the removal of pandemic supports, such as the rental eviction moratorium, and the rising cost of living would place more vulnerable people of all ages in distress.

“People who die by suicide have a high incidence of mood disorders. But it’s things such as financial pressure that lead to a person’s vulnerability to suicide,” she said.

She supported training more members of the community as first responders, but said policy decision-making should also give greater consideration to mental health impacts.

Suicide Prevention Australia is advocating for national legislation which would require governments to consider the mental health impacts of policies in areas such as health, housing and education.

Japan introduced similar legislation in 2006 and its suicide deaths fell by about 40 per cent in 15 years, hitting a 40-year low in 2019.

Stephen Lewin, CEO of Youth Insearch, a peer-to-peer suicide prevention organisation, said he was underwhelmed by the federal government’s investment in the area, given suicide is the leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 24.

While he appreciated a $23.5 million expansion of Headspace services in this week’s federal budget, he said there needed to be more investment in community initiatives, with “wraparound supports” of clinical guidance.

“The issue is we currently have a really medical model: it is asking young people ‘what’s wrong with you’ rather than ‘what’s happened to you’,” he said.

ReachOut CEO Ashley de Silva agreed there needed to be stronger investment in early intervention strategies.

“Sadly, 402 young people died by suicide [in Australia] in 2021. Each of these deaths represents a young person lost and a significant impact on those around them and their communities,” de Silva said.

Tamara Cavenett, president of the Australian Psychological Society, said psychologists were supportive of community suicide prevention training, but this needed to be backed up by investment in clinical support.

“The problem is when they then have nowhere to go for help. Identifying a problem without having access to a service within a decent timeframe is not a solution,” she said, expressing concern about waitlists for child psychologists and psychiatrists across the country.

The state government’s mental health package also included $35 million to June 2024 to increase access to psychology appointments through public health networks. In a statement, Taylor’s office said this had funded 25,000 sessions since January.

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