Experts call for national suicide rate to be halved

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Suicide prevention organizations from across Australia recently convened for a symposium in Sydney, to coordinate their efforts and push for a national prevention strategy. Sue Murray, chief executive of Suicide Prevention Australia and convener of the symposium, explained that the incidence of suicide in the country has not gone down, in spite of considerable resources and efforts applied to the problem in recent decades. “So the aim is that we will together set an agenda and that agenda is to halve suicide over the next 10 years.” She noted that priorities for improvement include increasing cooperation among agencies so as to avoid redundancy and fill gaps; addressing stressors that are sometimes factors for suicidality in addition to mental health conditions; boosting education for first responders and emergency department personnel; and involving suicide attempt survivors in the development of prevention programs.

Spark Extra! Learn about the revised US National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, launched in 2012.