Lockdown suicide surge for teen girls in Victoria
Victoria’s latest coroners court data shows the number of young women dying by suicide has increased in the past three months.
The number of young Victorian women dying by suicide has increased month on month from August, a new report shows.
Coroners Court data showed 10 women below the age of 18 died by suicide to October 31 this year, compared with two in the same timeframe last year and six in 2019.
The figure is up by one death from the previous month, when nine young women committed suicide up to September 30.
Eight females aged 18 and younger died by suicide in the first eight months of this year to August 31.
Three women 18 and younger died by suicide in 2020, compared with nine in 2019, five in 2018 and five in 2017.
As well, 17 women aged between 18 and 24 died by suicide to October 31 this year, up from 15 recorded in the year to September.
Youth mental health expert Patrick McGorry said while the numbers remained small, there appeared to be a trend. He noted the total number of young women who died by suicide had increased on last year.
“These figures are not going down in any of those younger age groups and it looks like they are rising in teenage girls,” Professor McGorry said.
“If you look at suicidal behaviour, which has absolutely surged … it is not surprising there would be a modest increase. Suicidal pressure is really there; we see it every day in our services.”
Professor McGorry has previously called the mental health fallout from Covid-19 restrictions the “shadow pandemic”, saying it was common for young women to present to services with emerging anorexia, suicidal behaviour and depression.
He called for more sustained and expert care for young people beyond Headspace – which provides early intervention support for less complex mental health issues among people aged 12-25 – amid soaring psychiatric waiting lists and full emergency beds.
“Strategies to contain the pandemic did create mental ill health … lockdowns, education shutdowns which impacted strongly on young people,” he said. “It was the right thing to do in terms of saving lives (from Covid) but now we have a responsibility to help young people recover because (they) were harmed by the pandemic and the measures taken to control it.”
A Coroners Court spokeswoman said there could be substantial variation in the data within cohorts and urged caution in drawing conclusions, but the court was continuing to monitor the number of deaths among young women, as noted in an August statement.
The data showed seven boys under the age of 18 died to October 31, compared with 10 in 2020.
Across all age groups, 425 men have died by suicide compared with 134 women to October 31.
If you or someone you know is
at risk of suicide, call Lifeline
(13 11 14) or the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), or see
a doctor.
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