Children as young as 6 contact Kids Helpline with suicidal thoughts

Children reaching out to Kids Helpline struggling with suicidal thoughts are getting “younger and younger”, alarming new data shows.

Tracy Adams from yourtown. Picture: Richard Walker

Children as young as six are reaching out to the Kids Helpline struggling with suicidal thoughts, alarming new data shows.

Yourtown chief executive Tracy Adams said the latest data revealed one in six counselling contacts in the past 12 months was related to suicidal thoughts.

“Disturbingly, the children making contact to Kids Helpline for suicide-related concerns are getting younger and younger,” Ms Adams said.

“The statistics captured in the 2024 Kids Helpline Impact Report outline the prevalence of deep distress in children and young people resulting in counselling presentations for a range of issues including suicidal thoughts, child abuse, and sextortion.”

“We have seen a 5 per cent increase in the contacts made by 11-year-old children in relation to suicide-related issues since 2019,” she said.

There were 11,682 Kids Helpline counselling contacts related to thoughts of suicide in 2024.

Ms Adams said it was clear there was a need for greater funding across different levels of government for the service.

“Disappointingly, with this level of demand from children and young people, we can report that of the six states and two territories in Australia, Kids Helpline received funding from three states – New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia — in 2024,” Ms Adams said.

“We are eager to work with the next federal government to attempt to build a stronger youth mental health system.”

News Corp Australia recently revealed there had been an alarming surge in young people — driven by school aged children — at risk of a suicide attempt contacting Kids Helpline.

It was part of the Can We Talk? campaign in partnership with Medibank.

Counsellors undertook just over 1800 crisis or emergency interventions in 2024 to protect young people facing imminent risk of harm from a suicide attempt — up from 573 in 2014.

The report noted Kids Helpline was deeply concerned about the significant increase in suicidal thoughts among children and young people living in rural and remote Australia contacting the service.

“Over the past five years, there has been a 48 per cent rise in the number of young people from these areas presenting to the service with suicidal ideation,” it said.

This underscored the urgent need for increased mental health support and resources for young people in rural and remote communities, it noted.

Kids Helpline provided more than 74,600 counselling sessions to young people aged between five and 25 in 2024.

If you need help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.

Originally published as Children as young as 6 contact Kids Helpline with suicidal thoughts