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Incidence and Community Effects of Suicide in Socially Disadvantaged Communities in Launceston
Community Feedback on Prevention Strategies
Jane Chapman, Sally Coker, Mark Brown

INTRODUCTION
The authors work extensively with young people in the Rocherlea, Mayfield, and Ravenswood communities through the Northern Suburbs Community Centre, Ravenswood Neighbourhood House and Youth Insearch.

These communities rank as the three most socially disadvantaged communities in Launceston as measured by the SEIFA Index. (13 of 25 Launceston suburbs rank below the average Australian suburb rating of 1,000 points. As a point of comparison the least disadvantaged communities are Blackstone Heights 1086.3; East Launceston 1080.0; Legana 1061.8)

Rank by most disadvantaged
1. Rocherlea 628.7
2. Ravenswood 713.6
3. Mayfield 721.6
4. Waverley 789.7
5. Invermay/Inveresk 875.8
6. Mowbray 887.3
7. Punchbowl 897.7

These disadvantaged areas are characterised by:
1. Greater proportions of public housing ownership;
2. Greater proportions of single parent families;
3. Greater proportions of young people under the age of 15 years;
4. Greater proportions of households without access to private transport and therefore educational and employment opportunities; and consequently,
5. Lower workforce participation rates,
than other Tasmanian communities.

SUICIDE AND ACCIDENTAL DEATH THROUGH RISK TAKING BEHAVIOURS

It is our experience that suicide (and deaths through risk taking behaviours such as speeding and drug/alcohol abuse) are at extremely high levels within our communities. Suicide affects all age groups of residents, but is particularly noticeable amongst young people where it is at risk of becoming an entrenched part of the culture. The causes of suicide are individual and numerous, but it is probably not surprising that suicide is endemic in our communities in which antecedents such as poverty, unemployment, physical and sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and social isolation affect so many people. At the same time a lack of resources directly on the ground in these communities (workers, older mentors etc) limit the opportunities for community engagement with vulnerable individuals and the relationship and trust building that is vital before disclosure and referral to specialist services (eg mental health; sexual abuse counselling etc) can take place.

DEFINING THE PROBLEM

The trend in service provision is towards specialised services operating out of a central hub, in our case Launceston City. Whilst this has obvious benefits for the quality of services that are provided for particular needs, it doesn’t necessarily serve the needs of local communities in itself. We believe that the relative isolation of our communities has led to a culture in which outside services are not readily known about, sort or accessed, and that our community therefore would be best served by having fulltime workers, particularly for young people, who can refer on to specialist counsellors when required.

It is also our experience and that of our community that suicide is the end product of people not knowing how or where to get help to deal with their primary problems (refer Appendix 1 “Had problems all their lives and never had any help (said about a victim of suicide)”)

In order to mount a strong argument for these resources we need to be able to verify our belief that people in broadacre public housing communities are faring worse with respect to social problems such as suicide than residents in other suburbs of Launceston.

Unfortunately this is virtually impossible to do with respect to suicide due to the fact that the lay community cannot access comprehensive statistics that would either confirm or disprove our beliefs.

The National Coroners Information System (NCIS) which collates extensive information on suicides, including usual place of residence, is only available to coronial investigators or medical researchers. The information that is published by the Department of Health and Human Services is out of date and only broken down by region (e.g. 63 telephone district)

Sadly we need to rely on this Standing Committee to access the data that will confirm our daily experiences as workers and community members.

THE EFFECTS OF SUICIDE ON SURVIVORS

Many people in the Rocherlea, Mayfield, Ravenswood and Waverley communities are deeply affected by grief stemming directly from the suicide of a person known to them within their local communities. It affects parents, friends, neighbours and workers in ever expanding circles with severe social, emotional and economic consequences.

Older residents in the more long standing suburbs such as Mayfield report that suicide has been a part of the life of their communities for many years.

Amongst the current generation of young people there is a real danger that it is being normalised as an appropriate way of dealing with chronic emotional pain that has gone untreated for too long.

PREVENTION STRATEGIES FOR OUR COMMUNITIES

We believe the following prevention strategies are needed in our communities. Our emphasis is on early intervention.

1. Increased funding for community development and youth workers who will work directly in the local community. (This means providing or securing additional funding from FaCS to NSCC to employ a dedicated youth worker for Mayfield to supplement its service to Rocherlea; and a dedicated youth worker for Ravenswood).
2. Guaranteed funding for these positions and program development for a period of not less than 5 years.
3. Community based education programs on suicide facilitated by specialist workers.
4. Funding and organisation support (through DHHS) for regular development programs for local youth workers so they have a forum to network and undergo personal and professional development for the benefit of their clients. This forum would also provide a venue for specialist services (eg Laurel House Sexual Assault Support) to build rapport and educate locally based workers about what mutual clients can expect when they access that service.
5. Improved and expanded alternative education programs (particularly those that focus on vocational skills) targeting 12-15 year olds who have become disengaged from the formal education system. (eg Dept of Education/Housing Tasmania partnership to provide horticultural, fencing, paving training etc in local public housing properties).
6. Improved timeliness and greater transparency in the reporting of suicide trends so that assistance can be better tailored to local communities and population groups.








Appendix 1 – Consultation with Northern Suburbs Community
Appendix 2 – Identified issues in the Ravenswood Community
Appendix 3 – Supporting Information from Mark Brown


Appendix 1

STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTION OF SUICIDE
“Most people don’t want to die but they need help to live”

FACTS:
 There is a noticeable lack of knowledge on: where to go for help, what do you do if you think someone is at risk.
 Nowhere in the Northern Suburbs to go for help. Nothing local or in the community.
 High rate of youth suicide in the Northern Suburbs. Approx. 12 in the past 12 months that we know of.
 There is a lack of resources and workers that deal with mental health in the Northern Suburbs. The known workers/faces are dealing with this issue more and more but are under funded and resourced
 There is a need for community awareness
 There is a need for community education
 The attitude of suicide by some community members needs to be addressed
 It is a Mental Health issue
 It is a Social Justice issue
 The need to change the way deaths and treatment of mental illness is addressed by the police.
OPINIONS:
 The community believes that the issue should be dealt with in the local community
 Needs workers at ground level, who actually work in the community
 We see the results but don’t have any backup – Ward 1E is the only facility to deal with this issue.
 Northern Family Support Guide 2005 has 2 points of contacts listed and are crisis services only.
 We believe that self-esteem of communities in general needs to be lifted to address this issue. Employment and education can empower individuals.
 The community needs to know what to do when faced with a suicidal individual.
 Relationship training is needed amongst young people.
 Drug and alcohol are contributing factors.
 There is a high level of school non attendance in the Northern Suburbs.
ARGUMENTS:
 Due to the high number of youth suicides a worker is needed.
 There is a distinct lack of resources and workers in the Northern Suburbs with full time work or ongoing funding.
 People are finding it difficult to cope with everyday living.
 The Northern Suburbs communities are low-income areas.
 As police are the first point of contact what training do they have. What do they have in place.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION:
 More money into the Northern Suburbs not token amounts that are currently received.
 Continual support with ongoing funding
 Community based programs and education.
 Development of social networks for disadvantaged communities

ACTION RESEARCH
By Jane Chapman – Youth Worker/Family Liaison Worker

Northern Suburbs Community Members consultation

What do you think could be strategies for prevention of suicide in your community?

 More services for youth to go to
 Awareness on how to cope with people who are about to commit suicide
 Coping with work stress
 Try to define underline problem
 Had problems all their lives and never had any help (said about a victim of suicide)
 Need to talk about suicide more openly
 More out in the open, in the community, awareness campaign
 Mental illness problem dealt with
 Have a community based program
 Nowhere to turn to in Launceston. Only LGH Ward 1E.
 I tried to find help for a young person and all that was available was ward 1E and the youth was instantly given medication that they had a bad reaction to. That added to their issues.
 Drugs and Alcohol need to be addressed as this can be an underlying issue
 Psych ward takes too long to get an appointment and is only short term
 Need a community support person that we all know
 Local level support person
 The community needs something to do
 Community needs to be more acceptable of people with problems
 Use a pre war idea of community values, where people actually care about each other.

Youth Suicide Notes – Ravenswood
Sally Coker – Ravenswood Neighbourhood House

• Lack of knowledge as to where to go to get support or advice
• Lack of transport, to limited services in the city-need seems to arise more at night and weekends
• Lack of support services in local suburbs
• Not sure of youth suicide in Ravenswood but personally have known 10 in the last 12 months in the north which doesn’t include any of Mayfield’s. 3 members from r.n.h. have lost children to suicide in the last 12 months
• Many Ravenswood youth affected by suicide in other northern suburbs as they go to school or have gone to school with these youth
• No trained workers in Ravenswood to work with youth under 18
• Services like Laurel House stretched to breaking point
• Drug use a big issue and only service available at The Corner half day once a week with a waiting list
• Lack of support by some community members (attitude to problem, don’t address it and hopefully it’ll go away)
• Lack of community education
• Low self esteem in the community (lack of jobs, education)
• I see peer pressure as a big part of this-relationship issues and how to handle relationships that they may not be ready for or mature enough to deal with
• Lack of knowledge of how to support someone who is suicidal
• More long term youth workers in schools or neighbourhood houses that youths can build a rapport and trust with and trust with disclosures etc.
• More support from Education in supporting students with issues and non participation at school (looking at ground roots of the issues and believing what they’re told, not making an opinion and ignoring some or all the issues)
• More education around suicide in an open non threatening way including compulsory education forums for parents.
• Self esteem building at primary school level to minimise peer pressure, drug, alcohol issues (this might mean just having someone who will listen to you in a non-judgemental way)
• To maybe follow by self esteem building for the whole community somehow
• Youth workers need to be out there doing things with youth not sitting behind desks looking at paperwork
• Youths that have friends that have or are talking about suicide have no one in their local communities trained to discuss how they’re feeling or how to cope in their day to day anger and grief
• Lack of things to do in Ravenswood big issue

Boredom, depressed = drugs, alcohol = more depression

Parliamentary submission into Strategies For The Prevention Of Suicide
Supporting information by Mark Brown – Youth Insearch Liaison Officer

• The Northern Suburbs appear to be disadvantaged by access to (and from) a multitude of centrally (CBD) located health and associated services.
• It is acknowledged that much of the Northern Suburbs population and in particular, its young people don’t have the finances, motivation or knowledge to access these services.
• The lack of opportunity to access “local” or “outreach” services means that many people in this area can’t (lack of finances), won’t (lack of motivation) or don’t (lack of knowledge) access them elsewhere.
• People who can access these services in the CBD are usually confronted by “waiting lists”, leading to frustration and disconnection with the service.
• A community which suffers from the opportunity or ability to develop a healthy “social fabric” suffers from the broad range of symptoms that arise from that loss of opportunity or lack of ability.
• It is recognised that the lack of a broader range of community development opportunities, range of local recreational, employment, professional and health services available, and heightened level of community apathy has had a significant and detrimental affect on what underpins and is supposed to support the Northern Suburbs community as a whole (the social fabric).
• The incidence of suicide by (especially by young people) in the Northern Suburbs appears to be alarmingly high, especially in the last 12 months.
• A wide range of negative issues contribute to and result from the incidence of suicide, and have a further detrimental affect on the social fabric of the community.
• It should be recognised that everyone in the community suffers in some way from the effects of suicide.
• A broad population within the community appear to have lived with a culture of suicide and feel that is part of their community.
• There appears to be a community wide (and broad based) need for awareness and education into the whole picture of suicide and associated issues.
• Positive (and locally based) initiatives and opportunities, which add value to a community need to be offered, embraced and celebrated by the community.
• It has to be respected that the social fabric of the community will only get stronger and improve if (and when) the community as a whole can start to appreciate, understand, take ownership and perhaps most importantly, be equipped with the resources to address the underlying problems and issues which affect it.

x-ref Post titled "Northern Youth need your help"

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