Psychiatrists call for role in suicide fight

Psychiatrists should be more involved in designing Australia’s suicide prevention strategies, the peak psychiatry body says.

Psychiatrists are calling for greater involvement in designing and implementing Australia’s suicide prevention strategies. Photo: iStock.

Psychiatrists are there “when the chips are down” for those contemplating suicide and should be more involved in designing and implementing Australia’s suicide prevention strategies, the peak psychiatry body says.

Acknowledging current policies are failing, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists has formed a suicide prevention taskforce to ensure psychiatrists play a more active role in efforts to reduce suicide.

“We all have to acknowledge the painful truth that despite our efforts, current suicide prevention strategies are on the whole not achieving the change we want,” RANZCP president John Allan said ahead of the taskforce’s first meeting on Tuesday.

Despite an increased government policy focus on suicide, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released last month showed 3046 people took their lives last year, similar to the number in 2017.

Over the past five years, the suicide rate was higher than between 2009 and 2013. It remains the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15-44. “It is a growing public health concern,” Mr Allan said. “This is a confronting and challenging issue for all of us.”

He said psychiatrists were “often called on when the chips are down”.

“We know not everyone who dies by suicide has a mental illness, but many do,” Mr Allan said. “Appropriate care of mental illness and response to ­suicidal crisis is a fundamental part of our efforts to prevent suicide.

“As psychiatrists, we need to more fully engage with the community, with government, and the wider mental health sector to develop a better understanding of suicide and its risks, and the ways we can all work together.”

State and federal governments agreed in 2017 on a fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention program. A progress ­report for 2018 prepared by the National Mental Health Commission reported no significant achievements.

Mr Allan said there were many areas of policy concern, including suicide rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and of young people, both indigenous and non-indigenous.

Population-based prevention programs were as vital as acute treatment programs, he said.

He also identified middle-aged men as an at-risk group.

The taskforce brings together psychiatric expertise from Australia and New Zealand, and includes specialists in the mental health of First Nations people in both countries.