Here are three facts that, we suspect, not many people in this country would feel comfortable discussing or even acknowledging.

One: in 2020 alone, 3169 Australians died by suicide.

Two: suicide remains the leading cause of death among Australians aged 15 to 24.

Three: unlike deaths from, say, cancer or heart disease, deaths from suicide are entirely preventable. Every suicide is not only a tragedy, but preventable.

There are many factors that lead somebody to take their own life, chief among them mental illness such as depression.Credit:iStock

There are many factors that lead somebody to take their own life, chief among them mental illness such as depression. As The Age reported recently, the pandemic took its toll on the mental health of young people in particular. Our poll of 16 to 24-year-olds revealed one in four had thought about suicide over the past two years and 15 per cent had attempted self-harm.

But it is equally clear that the taboos around discussing suicide can contribute to feelings of alienation, reluctance to seek help and failure to recognise when somebody is at risk.

Even in the media suicide is more of a taboo than ever as we endeavour to balance the desire for frank reporting against fears inappropriate language could romanticise or normalise suicide. Instead, readers or viewers are often left to deduce the cause of death themselves, with coded mentions of a lack of “suspicious circumstances” and a reference to Lifeline.

Yet the strategy of tiptoeing around the topic, believing suicide is something that only touches other people, other families, or believing that talking about it frankly may encourage others to follow suit, does not appear to be particularly successful.

If we genuinely want to do something about the number of deaths from suicide in this country, we need to be able to talk about the subject openly and honestly. It is not going to be easy. As Matt Berriman, the recently appointed chair of Mental Health Australia, tells The Age: “People need to get comfortable being uncomfortable if they want change.”

On Monday, Mr Berriman launches a campaign calling on the federal government to set a national target to reduce deaths by suicide by 25 per cent by 2025. It is not without precedent. Faced with a suicide epidemic, in 2002 Scotland set a target to reduce the suicide rate by 20 per cent over the next decade. It reached 19 per cent by 2013. In Australia, however, the government has been reluctant to set specific targets, defaulting to the notion that the only acceptable target is zero suicides.

The Turnbull government rejected calls from mental health bodies for a specific reduction target in 2015. Similar calls were repeated, and rejected, in 2017 and 2018. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt still argues that “zero is the only acceptable target as it recognises the value of each and every life. Every single life lost to suicide is one too many.”

This, says Mr Berriman, is an “unrealistic motherhood statement” that minimises the government’s accountability. Instead, he believes a more realistic target would provide a necessary goal and reveal whether preventative strategies are actually working. “With mental health,” he says, “my view is there is very little accountability.”

As we report, it must be noted that the government has not been sitting on its hands, introducing initiatives including the first National Suicide Prevention Adviser, establishing a National Suicide Prevention Office and funding universal aftercare for people discharged after self-harm or a suicide attempt, something experts say is critical in forestalling further attempts.

But this masthead sees no reason why these initiatives cannot exist with a target framework that encourages accountability and goal setting. Put simply: what gets measured has a better chance of getting done.

Gay Alcorn sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive her Note from the Editor.

Lifeline: 13 11 14, lifeline.org.au

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