Leading the charge on Indigenous suicide prevention

Community is key to the University of Western Australia’s effort to prevent suicide among Indigenous people.

Tinpulya (right), a cultural healer, offers guidance to others in the University of Western Australia's program to prevent Indigenous suicide. Picture: Asher Lilley

Community Champion Award Finalist University of Western Australia

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Leading the charge on Indigenous suidice prevention

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Measures to reduce the alarmingly high rate of suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are central to the work of a specialist centre at the University of Western Australia, led by Professor Pat Dudgeon.

These strategies include advising on after-care following a suicide attempt, ensuring coronial recommendations are implemented, and strengthening Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing in general and particularly in the criminal justice system.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults commit suicide at twice the rate of other Australians and the rate for Indigenous adolescents is higher still.

UWA’s Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention provides advice on a range of evidence-based programs and services to address the ongoing tragedy of Indigenous suicide, Dudgeon says. All the programs are screened through an Indigenous lens to have the maximum impact in communities.

“The centre is a clearing house for best practices and services,” Dudgeon adds, and there are certain requirements that must be met: the programs must be requested by communities, they should be co-designed by community members or least have deep community engagement, and they should include capacity building. “Helicoptering in programs is not appropriate, successful or effective,” she says.

Dudgeon, who is Aboriginal, says the Indigenous suicide rate is so high, particularly among men, because of a “matrix of reasons”.

“People sometimes say ‘forget the past, let’s move on’, but the past is still with us,” she adds. “The impacts of colonisation are still felt. There was invasion, genocide, the displacement of people off their country into missions and reserves, and the stolen generations.”

Indigenous people still live with ongoing social, institutionalised and systemic racism, she says: “We saw it with the failed referendum and the racism that was so apparent in the lead-up.”

Indigenous Australians are also jailed much more frequently than non-Indigenous Australians, Dudgeon adds, and that’s obviously “not because Indigenous people are naturally criminal but due to biases in the system.”

The centre’s research has confirmed that self-determination is core to the goal of reducing Indigenous suicide, and cultural solutions are the most effective in mitigating the root causes of suicide. Culture is always at the centre of things, according to Dudgeon, who adds that social and emotional wellbeing comes from physical and mental health, connection to family, connection to community, country and ancestors, and spirituality.

There has been progress in many fields of Indigenous wellbeing, she adds, and a range of Indigenous programs now have Indigenous people included in governance and decision-making.

“There has been change, but it hasn’t been fast enough,” she says, pointing to the notorious Perth youth detention centres of Banksia Hill and Unit 18, recently described by a Children’s Court judge as a “barbaric dungeon where children are deprived and dehumanised”.

By contrast, Dudgeon and the centre staff recognise the positive efforts coronial services have made to better interact with Aboriginal families which have lost someone to suicide or sudden death.

There has been enthusiasm for change, and some coronial offices have asked for more funding for cultural sensitivity training, which Dudgeon sees as a good start.

“Their willingness to engage is excellent,” she says.