Broken heart of a nation and 77 souls

In the early hours of this year, Jade Collard, 15, made a tragic decision.

Teenager Jade Collard, the first of 77 indigenous people to commit suicide this year.

Jade Collard was adored by those around her. She was a happy kid, kind-hearted and loyal.

But in the early hours of this year, the 15-year-old Aboriginal girl made the tragic decision to take her own life, leaving her parents and her eight older brothers and sisters to endure a pain that they say will never go away.

Her suicide marked the opening of the heartbreaking national tale of 2019: 77 indigenous suicides over the first five months of this year, and seven in the past week alone.

The fresh data from the frontlines of the crisis reveals 20 of the deaths were children, including two 12-year-olds. More than half of the 77 were under the age of 26.

Of the deaths this week — National Reconciliation Week — two were Queensland indigenous teenagers: a boy aged 17 and an 18-year-old girl. The 17-year-old killed himself in a southeast Queensland town, following the suicide of another 17-year-old boy in his family just 18 months ago.

In a three-week period in January, eight indigenous children as young as 12 took their own lives, including West Australian teenager Jade. Yesterday her older sister Josephine, 24, said her family felt strongly that something had to change to halt the tragedies.

“We need to keep sharing these stories to let people know this is real — real kids and real families left behind,” Ms Collard said. “I see more deaths on the news and it is so hard … it is heartbreaking.”

■ MORE: Sick heart of a generation

Jade died on January 3, after being rushed to hospital two days earlier. She and her mother, Julia Hill-Collard, had been staying in Townsville, for Christmas when she took her own life.

Ms Hill-Collard is still in deep grief. Josephine said her mother spent a lot of time in a flower garden in her backyard. When butterflies flit through the blooms, she believes that, in some way, it is her baby talking to her.

A week after Jade died, 14-year-old Rochelle Pryor died in Perth Children’s Hospital, having been found unconscious in her bedroom. Rochelle’s eldest sister, Kyanne, in January described her as “sweet, happy and funny,” but said she had been very upset by racist bullying.

Julia Hill-Collard in her daughter’s bedroom in March. Picture: Colin Murty

Her family permitted The Weekend Australian to publish a photograph of Rochelle at the time, to draw attention to the growing issue of suicide among indigenous children.

Late last month, the Cape York Aboriginal community of Aurukun, a town of 1200, mourned the suicide death of a teenage girl, who was in Year 12 at boarding school in Toowoomba. She took her life soon after returning from a visit home.

Her ­funeral was held last week in the far north Queensland community, after another girl, aged 16, tried to hang herself from a tree outside the police station. She was cut down, and revived.

The new statistics have been revealed by Gerry Georgatos, former co-ordinator of the federally funded National Indigenous Critical Response Service, who warned the crisis was continuing unabated. “We need to tell the grim reality,” said Mr Georgatos, who now leads the National Critical Response Trauma Recovery Project, which has a suicide prevention focus. “Until governments take heed and focus, more children than ever before will be lost.”

Almost a third of indigenous suicides this year have occurred in Queensland and the rate in the state appears to be increasing.

About 5 per cent of Australian children under 17 are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, but 40 per cent of the children who took their lives last year were ­indigenous. Of the 77 indigenous people who have killed themselves this year, 74 were living below the poverty line, 71 lived in social housing, and three were homeless.

Jade Collard, 15, who took her own life in January. Picture: Supplied

Mr Georgatos said current policy approaches to suicide were ad hoc, and Australia needed dedicated federal suicide-prevention ministers at commonwealth and state levels. Britain named its first minister for suicide prevention last October.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said Queensland’s Suicide Prevention Health Taskforce was turning its attention to tackling indigenous suicide and had held three roundtable meetings focused on the tragedy.

“The ideas from those roundtables have included resources to support culturally capable health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers and carers, culturally informed and co-designed hospital emergency department environments and implementation of culturally safe referral pathways for Indigenous people,” Mr Miles said.

One of Queensland’s leading indigenous doctors, Mark Wenitong, from Apunipima Cape York Health Council, said this year there had been a failure of counselling services to follow up’ those who had attempted suicide and a lack of prevention programs for the most vulnerable.

The comments were echoed by peak medical bodies — including the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation — which last month issued a joint statement calling on the federal government to declare indigenous youth suicides a national priority

Ahead of the federal election, the Coalition announced $42m for youth and indigenous mental health, including $12.5m to “make mental health services more effective for indigenous people’’.

This week, new Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, said reducing the number of young people committing suicide was a priority that needed new approaches. “We can’t prevent them all but I want to make sure there’s support,” he said. “There may be structures outside the ‘8 to 5’ service model.”

If you or someone you know may be at risk of suicide, call Lifeline (13 11 14) or the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), or see a doctor